"Between 1850 and 1945, the issue of male leisure became enmeshed with changing contemporary debates on the encroaching mass society and its implications for good citizenry." "Working-class culture has often been depicted as an atomised and fragmented entity lacking any significant cultural contestation. Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary source material, this book powerfully challenges these recent assumptions and places social class centre stage once more. Arguing that there was a remarkable continuity in male working-class culture between 1850 and 1945, Beaven contends that despite changing socio-economic contexts, male working-class culture continued to draw from a tradition of active participation and cultural contestation that was both class and gender exclusive." "This lively and readable book draws from accounts from those who participated in and observed contemporary popular leisure making it of importance to those working in the fields of social history, popular culture, urban history, historical geography, historical sociology and cultural studies."--Jacket.