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Chapter 1 - The Origins and Growth of the Modern Circus

from Part I - Transnational Geographies of the Modern Circus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2021

Gillian Arrighi
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle, New South Wales
Jim Davis
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
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Summary

The opening of Astley’s Amphitheatre on the outskirts of London in 1770 marked the beginning of the modern circus by providing the essential model that would be refined and expanded as it grew into a global form of entertainment during the nineteenth century. Although many components – equestrian feats, acrobatics, performing animals, rope walking – long antedated Astley’s early displays, it was their combination into a singular show staged within a ring of spectators that gave form to what came to be known as the circus. In this chapter Matthew Wittmann examines the origins of the circus in late eighteenth-century London, contextualising its emergence and tracing its dynamic diffusion across Europe and the Americas during the half century that followed.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Cárdenas, Julio Revolledo. La fabulosa historia del circo en México. Mexico: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 2004.Google Scholar
Coxe, Antony Hippisley. A Seat at the Circus. London: Archon Books, 1980.Google Scholar
Disher, Maurice Willson. The Greatest Show on Earth. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1937.Google Scholar
Dmitriev, Iu. A. Tsirk v Rossii: Ot istokov do 1917 g. Moskva: Iskusstvo, 1977.Google Scholar
Jando, Dominique. Philip Astley & the Horsemen Who Invented the Circus: 1768–1814. San Francisco, CA: Circopedia, 2018.Google Scholar
Kwint, Marius. ‘The Legitimization of the Circus in Late Georgian England.Past & Present 174, no. 1 (2002): 72115.Google Scholar
Speaight, George. A History of the Circus. London: Tantivy Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Thayer, Stuart. Annals of the American Circus, 1793–1860. Seattle: Dauven & Thayer, 2000.Google Scholar
Thétard, Henry. La merveilleuse histoire du cirque 2 vols. Paris: Prisma, 1947.Google Scholar
Weber, Susan, Ames, Kenneth, and Wittmann, Matthew, eds. The American Circus. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.Google Scholar

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