A Matter of Obscenity - by Christopher Hilliard (Hardcover)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p><b>A comprehensive history of censorship in modern Britain</b> <p/>For Victorian lawmakers and judges, the question of whether a book should be allowed to circulate freely depended on whether it was sold to readers whose mental and moral capacities were in doubt, by which they meant the increasingly literate and enfranchised working classes. The law stayed this way even as society evolved. In 1960, in the obscenity trial over D. H. Lawrence's <i>Lady Chatterley's Lover</i>, the prosecutor asked the jury, Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read? Christopher Hilliard traces the history of British censorship from the Victorians to Margaret Thatcher, exposing the tensions between obscenity law and a changing British society. <p/>Hilliard goes behind the scenes of major obscenity trials and uncovers the routines of everyday censorship, shedding new light on the British reception of literary modernism and popular entertainments such as the cinema and American-style pulp fiction and comic books. He reveals the thinking of lawyers and the police, authors and publishers, and politicians and ordinary citizens as they wrestled with questions of freedom and morality. He describes how supporters and opponents of censorship alike tried to remake the law as they reckoned with changes in sexuality and culture that began in the 1960s. <p/>Based on extensive archival research, this incisive and multifaceted book reveals how the issue of censorship challenged British society to confront issues ranging from mass literacy and democratization to feminism, gay rights, and multiculturalism.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>A History Today Book of the Year<br><br>Christopher Hilliard's <i>A Matter of Obscenity</i> is an engaging read, full of compelling details about the authors and publishers accused of trafficking in obscenity and about the politicians and judges who claimed to know it when they saw it<b>---Emily Rutherford, <i>History Today</i></b><br><br>A Matter of Obscenity is an informative, even-handed and lucid study of British censorship in the 20th century. It is highly recommended, wherever you draw your personal lines regarding the division between the acceptable and unacceptable.<b>---Alexander Adams, <i>Spiked</i></b><br><br>The description of obscenity trials famous and less well-known is superbly rendered, as is Hilliard's analysis of the ever-changing link between social morality and the law<b>---Matthew D'Ancona, <i>Tortoise Media</i></b><br><br>A fascinating study of censorship in modern Britain<b>---Hannah Rose Woods, <i>History Today</i></b><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Christopher Hilliard</b> is professor of history at the University of Sydney. His books include <i>The Littlehampton Libels: A Miscarriage of Justice and a Mystery about Words in 1920s England</i> and <i>To Exercise Our Talents: The Democratization of Writing in Britain</i>. Twitter @chrhilli
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