Debating societies [ Clubs & Societies / Associational culture ]
… can be understood as institutions of the public sphere going further down the social scale than gentlemen’s clubs or coffeehouses. They developed in London, and later in provincial cities, in the second half of the eighteenth century. By … Senate (1808) and in the numerous discussions of the eloquence (and not just substantive arguments) of leading MPs in coffeehouses and in the press. 11 People flocked to debating societies because they wanted to hear good oratory, and to …
Advertisement | Clubs | Debate | Eloquence | Gender | Middling sort | North America | Politics | Public sphere
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