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INTRODUCTION British television has had a long, and not always happy, relationship with the Crown, but since Richard Cawston’s documentary The Royal Family (BBC, 1969) the Windsors have acknowledged the necessary evil of allowing the cameras in to record less formal aspects of their life and work. The Queen herself has since been the subject of three such observational
service in the American War of Independence and in the Caribbean, and so became the first prince to actually see the colonies, through to Prince Charles’s presence at the ceremonies marking the British withdrawal from Hong Kong in 1997 – the British royal family seems to have served as the symbolic link between Britain and its dominions overseas. Historians have at last caught up with journalists in the
The British royal family has experienced a resurgence in public interest in recent years. During the same period, global inequalities have expanded, leaving huge chasms of wealth inequality between ‘the elites’ and ‘the rest’. Yet, the monarchy is mostly absent from conversations about contemporary inequalities, dismissed as an archaic and irrelevant institution. This is the only book to argue that we cannot talk about inequalities in Britain today without talking about the monarchy.
Running the Family Firm is about the contemporary British monarchy (1953 to present). It argues that media representations (of, for example, royal ceremonies or royal babies) are the ‘frontstage’ of monarchy: this is what we usually see. Meanwhile, ‘backstage’, there are a host of political-economic infrastructures that reproduce the institution: this is what we don’t typically see. This book pulls back the stage curtain of monarchy and exposes what is usually hidden: how it looks versus how it makes its money and power.
Drawing on case studies of key royal figures – the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle – the book argues that media representations of the royal family are carefully stage-managed to ‘produce consent’ for monarchy in the public imagination. That is, the corporate power of monarchy (the Firm) is disguised through media representations of the royal family (the Family Firm). In so doing, the book probes conventional understandings of monarchy, and offers a unique and radical answer to the question ‘why does monarchy matter?’
This book provides a detailed consideration of the history of racing in British culture and society, and explores the cultural world of racing during the interwar years. The book shows how racing gave pleasure even to the supposedly respectable middle classes and gave some working-class groups hope and consolation during economically difficult times. Regular attendance and increased spending on betting were found across class and generation, and women too were keen participants. Enjoyed by the royal family and controlled by the Jockey Club and National Hunt Committee, racing's visible emphasis on rank and status helped defend hierarchy and gentlemanly amateurism, and provided support for more conservative British attitudes. The mass media provided a cumulative cultural validation of racing, helping define national and regional identity, and encouraging the affluent consumption of sporting experience and a frank enjoyment of betting. The broader cultural approach of the first half of the book is followed by an exploration if the internal culture of racing itself.
. According to Google Trends, UK searches for the term ‘British royal family’ at the time of the engagement announcement were more than double those around the time of the Paradise Papers leak: 12 the engagement announcement foregrounded familial relationships – the royal family – rather than the institution of monarchy and the investors caught up in the Paradise Papers ‘scandal’. That is, media representations of Harry and Meghan's engagement – such as the Daily Express 's ‘The Look of Love’ and the Sun 's ‘She's the
also stood at political and cultural crossroads. James had just finished his first ten years of English rule, and the events of 1613 changed the political and personal dynamic in the royal family and court forever. Further, no subsequent year in the Jacobean period equalled the moments of cultural brilliance of this year. The burning of the Globe on 29 June marked an ending and a
from a monarchical to a republican regime; following the plebiscite, in which a majority of Italians voted in favour of a republic in 1946, the members of the royal family were exiled, and they took along with them a large part of the archives of the dynasty. Notwithstanding the scarcity of primary material, historical studies have used the relatively few available royal sources as well as the records of parliament, ministries
-American bilateral summit meetings between presidents and prime ministers, informal ambassadorship by the royal family, and the forthcoming 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage in 2020. The objective is to complement traditional readings of pageantry by treating it also as an act of cultural sharing. Thereby, and consonant with Iriye’s classic definition of culture, elites send messages to Anglo-American – and other – audiences by manipulating cultural artifacts, evoking emotions, appealing to particular symbols and lifestyles, sharing selected aspects of collective memory
settled on Frederick as being suitable, to the chagrin of Queen Anne but with the support of Henry, who longed for such a stalwart Protestant to marry into the Stuart royal family. In the negotiations, James offered a dowry of £40,000, and an allowance; the Germans responded with an offer of £1,500 per annum for Elizabeth, and provided for the princess’s retinue of thirty-six men and thirteen women. ‘If