scholarly journals ‘Praise the Lord! We are a Musical Nation’: The Welsh Working Classes and Religious Singing

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-472
Author(s):  
Helen Barlow
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Congregational Singing ◽  
Massive Scale ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Hymn Singing ◽  
Insight Into

The title quotation from Under Milk Wood encapsulates a widely held belief in the innate musicality of the Welsh and its religious roots. These roots were put down deeply during the nineteenth century, in a huge expansion of choral and congregational singing across Wales and particularly in the industrial communities. This development has been described as ‘a democratic popular choral culture rooted in the lives of ordinary people’, and central to it was the cymanfa ganu, the mass hymn-singing festival. Choral and congregational singing, typified by the cymanfa ganu, underpinned the perception of Wales by the Welsh and by many non-Welsh people as ‘the land of song’.Alongside this phenomenon ran the tradition of the plygain, a Welsh Christmas carol service. While the cymanfa developed in nonconformist chapels in the mid to late nineteenth century, and on a large – often massive – scale, the plygain is a tradition dating from a period much further back, when Welsh Christianity was Catholic; it belonged to agricultural workers rather than the industrial communities; and the singers sang in much smaller groups – often just twos or threes.This article describes the nature and origins of these contrasting traditions, and looks at the responses of listeners both Welsh and non-Welsh, and the extent to which they perceived these practices as expressive of a peculiarly Welsh identity. It also considers some of the problems of gathering evidence of working-class responses, and how far the sources give an insight into working-class listening experiences.

Labor Violence in Russia in the Late Nineteenth Century

Slavic Review ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel R. Brower
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Collective Violence ◽  
Factory Workers ◽  
Revolutionary Movement ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Labor Violence ◽  
Insight Into

Protest action accompanied by violence was widespread among Russian factory workers during the late nineteenth century. The phenomenon was noted by tsarist officials and radicals alike, but historians since then have paid little attention to the problem. This neglect has contributed to a distorted picture of the working-class movement and of the relations between Russian workers and factory and state authorities. In recent years it has become a truism to affirm that collective violence constitutes evidence of profound social stress. It is also true that the form and character of the violence in certain historical circumstances provide unique insight into the attitudes and expectations of groups, such as factory workers, otherwise unable to express their views. The violent actions of Russian workers are particularly important to an understanding of the origins of the revolutionary movement among the workers in the early twentieth century. What form did these actions take? Who were the participants, and what goals did they seek to attain? How did the incidence and nature of the actions change over the last decades of the century? Although the evidence is not abundant, answers to these questions suggest that collective violence played an important part in the working-class movement in the late nineteenth century.

scholarly journals The monumental landscape from below: public statues, popular interaction and nationalism in late nineteenth-century Amsterdam

Urban History ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (04) ◽  
pp. 722-746
Author(s):  
ANNE PETTERSON
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Methodological Challenge ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Building Project

ABSTRACT:Public monuments are considered an important tool in the nineteenth-century nation-building project. Yet while the intended (nationalist) message of the monumental landscape is often clear, the popular perception of the statues and memorials has been little problematized. This contribution analyses the popular interaction with public monuments in late nineteenth-century Amsterdam and questions whether ordinary people understood the nationalist meaning. With the help of visual sources – engravings, lithographs and the novel medium of photography – we become aware of the multilayered meanings and usages of the monuments in daily urban life, thus tackling the methodological challenge of studying the monumental landscape from below.

Fight Club, 1880: Boxing, Class, and Literary Culture in John Boyle O'Reilly's Boston

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 706-736
Author(s):  
JAMES EMMETT RYAN
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Class Mobility ◽  
Newspaper Editor ◽  
American Citizenship ◽  
Fight Club ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Because late nineteenth-century American sport was connected to both immigrant assimilation and cultural prestige, this essay first describes Boston amateur athletics during the later nineteenth century. Ireland-born poet/lecturer/newspaper editor John Boyle O'Reilly (1844–90) provides an important example of social and intellectual class mobility from the perspective of an immigrant writer. We observe through O'Reilly's sporting experiences and literary career how the development of upper-class amateur athletics in Boston and the popularity of boxing among its Irish working classes gave him exceptional influence among both groups. His history of boxing, Ethics of Boxing and Manly Sport (1888), is examined in detail as a key statement on pugilism, masculinity, and American citizenship fame. This view of Boston's intellectual and physical cultures, observed from the standpoint of O'Reilly, a talented writer and a sort of literary counterpart of famed pugilist John L. Sullivan (his friend, occasional sparring partner, and fellow celebrity among the Irish American community), sheds light on newly available pathways to social mobility made possible by simultaneous engagement with literary and athletic cultures.

scholarly journals Emociones socialistas en la huelga minera de 1890. La formación de la conciencia de clase y el giro emocional / Socialist Emotions during the Miner’ Strike of 1890. The Formation of Class Consciousness and the Emotional Turn

2017 ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Sara Hidalgo García
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Class Consciousness ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Siglo Xix

This article suggests a new way of analysis of the process of class consciousness formation in the Biscay basin of the Nervión (Spain) during the late nineteenth century. To this purpose the tools from the emotional turn theory are used, namely the concept of emotional regime understood as set of emotional expressions and normative emotions that underpins a political regime. The process will be studied through the great miner strike of 1890, the founding event of the working class movement in this area, or emotional response to the experience of social, economic and political changes by some miners in the Triano-Somorrostro zone. In this way, a “red Socialist emotional regime” would have emerged in 1890 which, from the Biscay labour class, revolved around aspects such as: defence of a code of dignity, pacifism in the protest, and a new and strong emotional norm to create community such as solidarity.Key WordsEmotional turn, Biscay socialism, working class, miners, red Socialist emotional regime, 1890 strike in Biscay.ResumenEste artículo propone un análisis renovado del proceso de formación de la conciencia de clase en la cuenca vizcaína del Nervión (España) a finales del siglo XIX. Para ello se usan las herramientas que proporciona la teoría del giro emocional, en concreto el concepto de régimen emocional o la normatividad emocional que sirve de base al régimen político. El estudio se centra en la huelga minera de 1890, acontecimiento fundacional del movimiento obrero en esta área, que es explicado como la expresión de la respuesta emocional de la experiencia de los cambios sociales, económicos y políticos dada por algunos obreros mineros de Triano-Somorrostro. Así, en 1890 habría nacido un “régimen emocional socialista rojo” que, surgido de la clase obrera vizcaína, pivotó sobre elementos tales como la defensa de un código de dignidad obrero, el pacifismo en las acciones de protesta, y la aparición de una nueva y poderosa norma emocional para crear comunidad como es la solidaridad.Palabras claveGiro emocional, socialismo vizcaíno, clase obrera, mineros, régimen emocional socialista rojo, huelga de 1890 en Vizcaya.

In the inventories of deceased British merchant seafarers: Exploring merchant shipping and material culture, 1860–1880

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meaghan Walker
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Maritime History ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Merchant Marine ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
Working People ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Merchant Shipping

Between 1860 and 1880, the years which hold the richest collection of log books at the Maritime History Archive in St. John’s, NL, an average of 4,400 seafarers died per year working in the British merchant marine. Each of these deaths potentially produced an inventory of effects showing the material wealth of working people at sea. These inventories reveal the material possessions of late nineteenth-century seafarers, particularly young working-class men who exposed themselves most to danger but also were the most numerous demographic. By analyzing both what these inventories contain, but also what inventories are missing, it is possible to understand material factors stemming from changing dynamics in a workforce undergoing technological and demographical change.

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