Circus World

Roustabouts, Animals, and the Work of Putting on the Big Show

Andrea Ringer

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Paperback

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English

University of Illinois Press
09 July 2024

Other performing arts; General & world history; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Industrial relations & safety

Series: Working Class in American History

From the 1870s to the 1960s, circuses crisscrossed the nation providing entertainment. A unique workforce of human and animal laborers from around the world put on the show. They also formed the backbone of a tented entertainment industry that raised new questions about what constituted work and who counted as a worker.

Andrea Ringer examines the industry-wide circus world--the collection of shows that traveled by rail, wagon, steamboat, and car--and the traditional and nontraditional laborers who created it. Performers and their onstage labor played an integral part in the popularity of the circus. But behind the scenes, other laborers performed the endless menial tasks that kept the show on the road. Circus operators regulated employee behavior both inside and outside the tent even as the employees themselves blurred the line between leisure and labor until, in all parts of the show, the workers could not escape their work.

Illuminating and vivid, Circus World delves into the gender, class, and even species concerns within an extinct way of life.

By: Andrea Ringer
Imprint: University of Illinois Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 399g
ISBN: 9780252087967
ISBN 10: 0252087968
Series: Working Class in American History
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 09 July 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Further / Higher Education , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Andrea Ringer is an assistant professor of history at Tennessee State University.

Reviews for Circus World: Roustabouts, Animals, and the Work of Putting on the Big Show

“Ringer’s approach to circus history centering the labor of transnational adults, children, and animals is both entirely original and deeply important. Circus World points the way to a new and more expansive kind of labor history.”--Jeremy Zallen, author of American Lucifers: The Dark History of Artificial Light 1750–1865