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The Emotional Economy of Holidaymaking Health, Pleasure, and Class in Britain, 1870-1918
Yaara
Bener Alaluf
Oxford: University
Press, 2021 Hardback,
xii+196 pp. ISBN 978-0198866152. £65
Reviewed by Hugh Clout University College London
This intriguing title
is the latest to appear in the ‘Emotions in History’ series edited by Ute
Frevert and Thomas Dixon. It derives from the author’s doctoral thesis,
completed at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and defended at the
Free University of Berlin. Historian-sociologist Yaara Bener Alaluf revisits
the dual themes of watering places and mass holidaymaking in Victorian and
Edwardian Britain and poses a range of challenging questions regarding social
attitudes and leisure consumption. She traces the transition from holidaymaking
as the preserve of the rich to an expectation by ordinary citizens and then explores
the shift from a holiday being seen as a means of alleviating health problems
to being recognised as an expression of a well-deserved entitlement to fun and
happiness away from home. Thus, ‘idleness on holiday became more of a matter of
enjoyment than guilt’ [10]. Such developments in society depended on the
provision of public transport, especially cheap railway tickets, and the
implementation of legislation to guarantee periods of freedom from paid work,
starting with the Bank Holiday Act of 1871. They were also a response to a
growing medical and social belief that ‘neurasthenia’ hampered overall
wellbeing and that ‘overwork’ had serious negative effects on productivity. As the years passed
and successive laws provided rights to paid leave and holidays, first to those
in professional and white-collar employment and later to industrial workers,
increasing numbers of people initially took one-day trips to the coast and then
enjoyed longer stays, thereby ‘boosting the British holiday industry and
marking the dawn of mass tourism’ [2]. The main motivation for visiting coastal
resorts (and inland spas) shifted from seeking a physical cure to a quest for
amusement, fun and happiness. Previously, ‘recreation facilities at health
resorts were quite basic and unorganised and were not seen as the main reason
for visiting but as secondary to therapeutic objectives’ [4]. To cater for this
new demand, town councils equipped their seafronts with pleasure gardens, carousels,
giant Ferris wheels, and other attractions and provided space for amusement
arcades and cafés. Such innovations were far removed from the genteel elegance
of historic spas. Hotels and boarding houses proliferated in modern resorts, in
response to the requirements of various sectors of the holidaymaking market and
as a way of boosting trade. Drawing on historic sources as well as more recent
academic work in a wide range of disciplines, the book ‘reflects the debates of
the time on the purpose of the holiday. It hints at assumptions about class and
desire … and points to the contested expertise and authority of physicians on
the topic of leisure activities’ [2]. In an intricately
argued and very thoroughly referenced introduction, Yaara Bener Alaluf outlines
the essential conditions for the popularisation of holidaymaking and traces the
transition from seeking physical cure to experiencing emotional management in
the form of enjoyment, if only on a short-term basis. Central questions ‘to
better grasp the crystallisation of a new epistemology of holidaymaking in
British Victorian and Edwardian resorts’ [13] are duly raised. The author
identifies a substantial increase in interest in emotions as an object of
historical enquiry ‘both as a category for historical analysis and as a
variable that affects history’ [14]. Her own approach combines the history of
emotions with the sociology of commodification to advance the concept of ‘emotional
economy’ which serves as a theoretical and analytical device to probe the
interrelation between the meaning and value of emotions and aspects of the
economy. She traces the overlapping impact of medical and economic thought on
social ideals and performative expressions of work and leisure. The book begins by
exploring the medical community’s several views on the value of holidaymaking
to members of the middle class as well as to the labouring population, before
charting the development of the resort industry and reviewing experiences of
fun-seeking holidaymakers that range from genuine satisfaction to miserable
disappointment. Examples are drawn from several resorts, with special attention
being focused on Scarborough and Blackpool as modern pleasure locations, and on
Harrogate as the locus of more refined enjoyment. Issues of class and gender
are explored, with helpful illustrations of how resorts were managed and
segregated spatially by carefully positioned fences and gardens in order to
appeal to different segments of clientele. The author develops her argument in
an intricate way whose complexity weaves deftly between chapters. These deal in
turn with emotional pathologies and holidays as therapy; holiday legislation;
the impact of health, pleasure and class in defining holidays; ‘emotionalisation’
of resorts; and consuming emotional experiences of holidaymaking. In her
conclusion the author reflects upon the complex interaction of emotional, moral
and economic issues. She amply demonstrates that 'holidaymaking in
late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century resorts was the outcome of broader
processes, including the emotionalisation of nature, the pathologisation of work
and the worker, the democratisation of leisure, and the commercialisation of
the local government' [167]. Readers will be
struck by the vast array of literature cited, ranging from medical reports and
parliamentary documents to advertisements for resorts, travel guides, published
stories about holidaymaking and diary accounts. The main text is supported by
821 footnotes, many of which have multiple components. Over 300 bibliographic items
are listed alongside a valuable guide to relevant local history collections,
parliamentary papers and historic newspaper articles. The Emotional Economy
of Holidaymaking is an immensely erudite book that is structured in an
intricate way and written in a demanding scholarly style with arguments interwoven
and extended across successive chapters. By exploring the relationship between
medical ideas and the desirability of leisure, and by digging deep into
changing attitudes and emotions regarding holidaymaking, it not only enhances
our understanding of the historic development of mass tourism but also casts
light on often over-simplified expressions of cause and effect regarding this
topic. Yaara Bener Alaluf’s book is especially relevant at the present with its
many expressions of confinement and the widespread desire to take a holiday. Her
remarkable monograph prompts readers to think hard about what they are seeking
to escape and what emotional needs they hope to satisfy by taking a break away
from home. It is not only of relevance to understanding the past but also
contains messages for our own time.
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