Overview

The historical figure of the dandy has commonly been described as an upper-class gentleman. But there is a broader history to be told about the dandy--one that incorporates unknown men from the lower strata of society. The Dandy: A People's History constitutes the first history of those dandies who emanated from the less privileged layers of the populace--the lowly clerks, shop assistants, domestic servants, and laborers who increasingly during the modern age have emerged as style-conscious men about town. A series of fascinating in-depth studies of the wide variety of dandy subcultures that have surfaced around the world in the last two centuries tell the story of how the shaping of fashions and the image of men became increasingly democratized, with the arbiters of taste increasingly coming from the other end of the social spectrum. We encounter such long-forgotten groups as the mashers, the knuts, the Paris gandins and the Berlin transgender dandies, alongside unexplored figures like the zoot suiter, the teddy boy, and the New Romantic. This is a story of how fundamental aspects of modern culture such as fashion, style, and conduct have been shaped from below just as much as from above.

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Peter K. Andersson is senior lecturer in history at Örebro University in Sweden. He is the author of Streetlife in Late Victorian London and Silent History. Kevin Kemp is an award-winning British actor, narrator, and voice-over artist with a professional career of more than twenty years. He loves narrating all genres, but his specialties include sci-fi and fantasy (as a keen nerd, this suits him very well!), philosophy and academic nonfiction, and comedy. As a dialect coach, Kevin also enjoys titles that give him an accent challenge! His own accent is a relaxed RP/Estuary, which suits everyman stories very well, but with a background in classical and Shakespearean theater, he is confident in more epic settings too. Apart from the above, Kevin really does just love reading, absorbing nonfiction and bestsellers. He loves building rich and personal worlds for his listeners and chatting with them on social media; he can be found online at @KevinKempVO.

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