Research Catalog

Gilded youth : privilege, rebellion and the British public school

Title
Gilded youth : privilege, rebellion and the British public school / James Brooke-Smith.
Author
Brooke-Smith, James
Publication
  • London : Reaktion Books, 2019.
  • ©2019

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TextUse in library JFE 19-6433Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
294 pages : illustrations; 24 cm
Summary
The British public school is an iconic institution, traditionally a training ground for the ruling elite and a symbol of national identity. But beyond the elegant architecture and evergreen playing fields is a turbulent history of teenage rebellion, sexual dissidence and political radicalism. This book wades into the wilder shores of public school life over the last three hundred years. It uncovers armed mutinies in the late eighteenth century, a Victorian craze for flagellation, dandy aesthetes of the 1920s, quasi-scientific discourse on masturbation, Communist scares in the 1930s and the salacious tabloid scandals of the present day. Drawing on personal experience, extensive research and public school representations in poetry, school slang, spy films, popular novels and rock music, the author offers a fresh account of upper-class adolescence in Britain and the role of elite private education in shaping youth culture. He shows how this central British institution has inspired a counter-culture of artists, intellectuals and radicals - from Percy Shelley and George Orwell, to Peter Gabriel and Richard Branson - who have rebelled against both the schools and the wider society for which they stand.
Subjects
Genre/Form
History.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-285) and index.
Contents
Introduction: Permanent adolescence -- Floreat Seditio -- Thomas Arnold's schooldays -- The secret life of the Victorian schoolboy -- Classics and nonsense -- Athletes and aesthetes -- Red Menace -- Going underground -- The ordinary elite -- Afterword.
Call Number
JFE 19-6433
ISBN
  • 9781789140668
  • 1789140668
LCCN
2019393517
OCLC
1040530373
Author
Brooke-Smith, James, author.
Title
Gilded youth : privilege, rebellion and the British public school / James Brooke-Smith.
Publisher
London : Reaktion Books, 2019.
Copyright Date
©2019
Type of Content
text
still image
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-285) and index.
Research Call Number
JFE 19-6433
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