GOING TO THE PALAIS P

From the mid-1920s the dance hall occupied a pivotal place in the culture of working- and lower-middle-class communities in Britain - a place rivalled only by the cinema and eventually to eclipse even that institution in popularity. Going to the Palais examines the history of this vital social and cultural institution exploring the dances dancers and dance venues that were at the heart of one of twentieth-century Britain''s most significant leisure activities.Going to the Palais has several key focuses. First it explores the expansion of the dance hall industry and the development of a ''mass audience'' for dancing between 1918 and 1960. Second the impact of these changes on individuals and communities is examined with a particular concentration on working and lower-middle-class communities and on young men and women. Third the cultural impact of dancing and dance halls is explored. A key aspect of this debate is an examination of how Britain''s dance culture held up against various standardizing processes (for example commercialization Americanization) over the period and whether we can see the emergence of a ''national'' dance culture. Finally the volume offers an assessment of wider reactions to dance halls and dancing in the period. Going to the Palais is concerned with the complex relationship between discourses of class culture gender and national identity and how they overlap - how cultural change itself a response to broader political social and economic developments was helping to change notions of class gender and national identity.