Provincial modernity : Manchester and Lille in transnational perspective, 1860-1914
In this thesis I explore the ways middle classes in two provincial cities imagined the relationship between the city and the rest of the world. How did they make sense of local identity in the light of economic, geopolitical and cultural globalisation? I examine the political cultures and social structures that sustained their ways of thinking, showing how their responses were shaped by the economic connections of the two textile cities, and were articulated in municipal cultural policy around art galleries and the opera. I follow other historians in arguing that although the nineteenth century is typically portrayed as the age of nationalism, the cultures of 'second cities' make a powerful contribution to the development of European modernity. Where I depart from other work on second cities is in my desire to work comparatively and with a transnational frame. I show that ideas about local character informed the ways provincial elites responded to globalisation around the turn of the century. In the first research chapter I discuss the composition of the middle classes in the two cities, and the institutions and practices which bound them together. In the second research chapter I discuss opera in Lille. Nineteenth
Stopes, H. A. H.
Provincial modernity : Manchester and Lille in transnational perspective, 1860-1914. In this thesis I explore the ways middle classes in two provincial cities imagined the relationship between the city and the rest of the world. How did they make sense of local identity in the light of economic, geopolitical and cultural globalisation? I examine the political cultures and social structures that sustained their ways of thinking, showing how their responses were shaped by the economic connections of the two textile cities, and were articulated in municipal cultural policy around art galleries and the opera. I follow other historians in arguing that although the nineteenth century is typically portrayed as the age of nationalism, the cultures of 'second cities' make a powerful contribution to the development of European modernity. Where I depart from other work on second cities is in my desire to work comparatively and with a transnational frame. I show that ideas about local character informed the ways provincial elites responded to globalisation around the turn of the century. In the first research chapter I discuss the composition of the middle classes in the two cities, and the institutions and practices which bound them together. In the second research chapter I discuss opera in Lille. Nineteenth
provincial modernity manchester transnational perspective explore_way middle_class provincial city imagine relationship_city rest_world make_sense local_identity light economic geopolitical cultural globalisation examine political_culture social_structure sustain way_think show response shaped economic connection textile city articulate municipal cultural policy around art_gallery opera follow historian argue_although typically portray age nationalism culture second city make powerful development european modernity depart work second city desire work comparatively transnational frame show idea local character inform way provincial elite respond globalisation first_discuss composition middle_class two_city institution_practice bound_together second_discus opera nineteenth