| Contents |
Patrons of the Nation -- Exciting an Emulation -- Peculiar Genius -- Jack of All Trades -- The Greatest Beauty for the Greatest Number -- For the Masses, by the Masses -- A System to Force down the General Throat -- An Education for the Whole People -- A Society Against Ugliness -- "Society of Snobs" -- Rise of the Managers -- Furious Brainstorming -- Building a Social Movement? |
| Abstract |
"For almost 300 years, an organisation has quietly tried to change almost every aspect of life in Britain. That organisation is the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, often known simply as the Royal Society of Arts. It has acted as Britain's private national improvement agency, in every way imaginable - essentially, a society for the improvement of everything and anything. This book is its history. From its beginnings in a coffee house in the mid-eighteenth century, the Society has tried to change Britain's art, industry, laws, music, environment, education, and even culture. It has sometimes even succeeded. It has been a prize-fund for innovations, a platform for Victorian utilitarian reformers, a convenor of disparate interest groups, and the focal point for social movements. There has never been an organisation quite like it, constantly having to reinvent itself to find something new to improve. The book rewrites many of the old official histories of the Society and updates them to the present day, incorporating over half a century of further research into the periods they covered, along with new insights into the organisation's evolution. The book reveals the hidden and often surprising history of how a few public-spirited people tried to make their country better, offering lessons from their triumphs and their failures for all would-be reformers today"-- Provided by publisher |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Source of description | Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on March 16, 2020). |
| Issued in other form | Print version: Howes, Anton. Arts and minds. Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2020] 9780691182643 0691182647 |
| Genre/form | Electronic books. |
| ISBN | 0691201900 (electronic book) |
| ISBN | 9780691201900 (electronic bk.) |
| ISBN | 0691182647 |
| ISBN | 9780691182643 |
| ISBN | 0691207615 |
| ISBN | 9780691207612 |
| Stock number | 22573/ctvs5dj5m JSTOR |
| Stock number | 70A01A0B-E9D1-4844-AC8A-4903E1D510DE OverDrive, Inc. http://www.overdrive.com |
