Culture and Society

Many of the archival collections published by British Online Archives (BOA) can be grouped under the broad theme of “Culture and Society”. These terms are interrelated. They are also difficult to define. It may be said, however, that “Culture” denotes a set of practices, beliefs, and traditions, whilst “Society” can be understood as a group of people who occupy a shared space.

The collections grouped here chart the development of civil society across the globe (such as the rise of Black nationalism in South Africa and the consequent dismantling of Apartheid). These collections can inform our understanding of everyday life in differing forms of society—capitalist, socialist, fascist, colonial, and post-colonial. 

The collections in this theme likewise illustrate the influence of the Industrial Revolution upon British society, and upon its venerable institutions, like the Church of England. Several of these collections, such as the periodicals that were owned by the Illustrated London News (ILN), chart the development of, and changing attitudes towards, religious doctrines, such as Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, and Islam. 

The collections also chart the evolution of distinctively urban and rural cultures across Britain and throughout the wider world. In fact, these collections enable students and researchers to track developments within practically every aspect of culture and society, such as fashion, food, film, literature, music, travel, politics, the home, and sport. Significantly, they also shed light on changing attitudes towards sexuality and gender throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.