1. Manchester: city of culture – Mike Savage and Janet Wolff2. Calico connections: science, manufacture and culture in mid-nineteenth-century Manchester – Janet Wolff3. Counting the coppers: John Jennison and the Belle Vue Zoological Gardens – Michael Powell and Terry Wyke4. Manufacturing the Renaissance: modern merchant princes and the Manchester Dante Society – Stephen J. Milner5. The image of a well-ordered city: nineteenth-century Manchester theatre architecture and the urban spectator – Viv Gardner6. ‘He saw the city and wept’: the Manchester and Salford Methodist mission 1910–60 – Angela Connolly7. A case of cosmopolitanism: the Manchester International Club – Bill Williams8. Culture, participation and identity in contemporary Manchester – Andrew Miles9. Class conflict and the myth of cultural ‘inclusion’ in modern Manchester – Selina ToddIndex

This book brings together studies of cultural institutions in Manchester from 1850 to the present day, giving an unprecedented account of the city’s cultural evolution. These bring to light the remarkable range of Manchester’s contribution to modern cultural life, including the role of art education, religion, popular theatre, pleasure gardens, clubs and societies. The chapters show the resilience and creativity of Manchester’s cultural institutions since 1850, challenging any simple narrative of urban decline following the erosion of Lancashire’s industrial base, at the same time illustrating the range of activities across the social classes.The essays are organized chronologically. They consider the role of calico printers in the rise of art education in Britain; the origins and early years of the Belle Vue Zoological Gardens; the formation of the Manchester Dante Society in 1906; the importance of theatre architecture in the social life of the city; the place of religion in early twentieth-century Manchester, in the case of its Methodist Mission; the cosmopolitan nature of the Manchester International Club, founded in 1937; cultural participation in contemporary Manchester; and questions of culture and class in the case of a contemporary theatre group.This book will appeal to everyone interested in the cultural life of the city of Manchester, including cultural historians, sociologists, and urban geographers, as well as general readers with interests in the city. It is written by leading international authorities, including Viv Gardner, Stephen Milner, Mike Savage, Bill Williams and Janet Wolff.

'Culture in Manchester comprises nine essays which provide much evidence for the view that Manchester has not been, and is not culturally in decline. . .Most of the chapters are readable and avoid the impenetrable jargon of many essays in cultural studies.'Northern History, LI: 2, 1 September 2014