A Matter of Obscenity

The Politics of Censorship in Modern England

Christopher Hilliard

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Paperback

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English

Princeton University Press
01 December 2023

European history; British & Irish history; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900; Civil rights & citizenship; Freedom of information & freedom of speech

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 Lady Chatterley's Lover, 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.

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.

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 democratisation to feminism, gay rights, and multiculturalism.

'A fascinating study of censorship in modern Britain' – Hannah Rose Woods, History Today

'A Matter of Obscenity: The Politics of Censorship in Modern England refashions developments in the law into a lucid and engaging cultural history.' – Thomas J. Sojka, Los Angeles Review of Books

By: Christopher Hilliard
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780691226101
ISBN 10: 0691226105
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 01 December 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Christopher Hilliard is professor of history at the University of Sydney. His books include The Littlehampton Libels: A Miscarriage of Justice and a Mystery about Words in 1920s England and To Exercise Our Talents: The Democratization of Writing in Britain. Twitter @chrhilli

Reviews for A Matter of Obscenity: The Politics of Censorship in Modern England

A History Today Book of the Year A fascinating study of censorship in modern Britain ---Hannah Rose Woods, History Today A Matter of Obscenity: The Politics of Censorship in Modern England refashions developments in the law into a lucid and engaging cultural history. ---Thomas J. Sojka, Los Angeles Review of Books 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 ---Matthew D'Ancona, Tortoise Media 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. ---Alexander Adams, Spiked Christopher Hilliard's A Matter of Obscenity 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 ---Emily Rutherford, History Today Hilliard offers a fascinating romp through pornography, gangster comics, naughty postcards, avant garde plays, lewd cinema and modernist literature to demonstrate how 'obscenity law reflected uncertainties about what could be said - and, crucially, how and to whom - in a changing society ---Alecia Simmonds, Literature and History