Circus in the Long Nineteenth Century
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- ISBN 9781032454931
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 29 Jun 2026
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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This volume of documentary sources and critical commentary provides a history of circus in Australia in the long nineteenth century. Taking root by the 1840s, Australia’s lively circus culture became the region’s dominant entertainment by the century’s end. Cultivated through exchanges with visiting international circuses and nurtured by the energetic synergy that flourished between colonial audiences and home-grown enterprises, the region’s largest circuses were also touring internationally by late in the century, contributing to global circus networks. Sources from newspapers, journals, private collections, and government archives track the growth and diversification of circus in Australia, providing insight into its business, aesthetics, experience, and social life.
Gillian Arrighi is a researcher, author, teacher, consultant, and speaker. Her published research spans circus studies, popular entertainments of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, children and the stage, acting and new performance making, and digital methods for visualising historic research.
Mark St Leon (PhD, CA) is a retired university lecturer. Descended from the St Leons, one of Australia’s earliest circus families, he has pioneered the study of Australia’s circus history and is the author of Circus: The Australian Story (Melbourne Books, 2011).
