Cinema and Cinema-Going in Scotland, 1896-1950

Trevor Griffiths is Reader in Economic and Social History at the University of Edinburgh. Educated at the University of Oxford, he has carried out research on working-class society in Britain in the early twentieth century, before turning more recently to examine aspects of popular culture. He was Co-Investigator on the three-year AHRC research project, ‘Early Scottish Cinema, 1896-1927’.

• Introduction; 1. From Variety Hall to Picture House: The Emergence of Scottish Cinema to 1914; 2. Regulating Scottish Cinema: Censorship and the Child Audience; 3. Through War and Peace: The Changing Fortunes of Scottish Silent Cinema, 1914-29; 4. A Seven-Day Wonder?: Cinema and the Scottish Sabbath; 5. An Essential Social Habit: Cinema-going in the early sound era, c.1927-39; 6. Beyond the Dream Palace: The Role of Non-Commercial Cinema in Scotland; 7. To the Summit and Beyond: Cinema-Going in the 1940s; 8. A Flickering Image: Scottish Film Production; Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography.

This is an excellent book. It provides fascinating evidence of the peculiarities of national cinema, while revealing how cinema managers and their audiences could exert considerable agency in the leisure process. Most of all, it reveals how fruitful the localised study of cinema can be for historians.