{"title":"Egalitarian greetings: the social spread of the handshake in urbanizing Britain, 1700–1850","authors":"Penelope J. Corfield","doi":"10.1017/s0963926824000385","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Handshaking has a long multi-cultural history. This article focuses upon its diffusion in Britain 1700–1850. Two networks boosted the handshaking salutation. One was a mercantile network, extending across Europe’s urban/commercial regions. The other featured ‘middling sort’ Quaker men and women, who shook hands on principle. Gradually, the salutation became widely diffused – and acquired a range of egalitarian meanings. Handshaking was not an elite practice which ‘trickled down’ to the masses. Instead, it spread by social negotiation both ‘upwards’ and ‘downwards’ from middle-class society. Traditional hierarchy was yielding to an urbanizing and internationalizing world – with multiple individual options.","PeriodicalId":45626,"journal":{"name":"Urban History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Urban History","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0963926824000385","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Handshaking has a long multi-cultural history. This article focuses upon its diffusion in Britain 1700–1850. Two networks boosted the handshaking salutation. One was a mercantile network, extending across Europe’s urban/commercial regions. The other featured ‘middling sort’ Quaker men and women, who shook hands on principle. Gradually, the salutation became widely diffused – and acquired a range of egalitarian meanings. Handshaking was not an elite practice which ‘trickled down’ to the masses. Instead, it spread by social negotiation both ‘upwards’ and ‘downwards’ from middle-class society. Traditional hierarchy was yielding to an urbanizing and internationalizing world – with multiple individual options.
期刊介绍:
Urban History occupies a central place in historical scholarship, with an outstanding record of interdisciplinary contributions, and a broad-based and distinguished panel of referees and international advisors. Each issue features wideranging research articles covering social, economic, political and cultural aspects of the history of towns and cities. The journal coverage is worldwide in its scope. In addition, it hosts innovative multi-media websites - including graphics, sound and interactive elements - to accompany selected print articles. The journal also includes book reviews, reviews of recent PhD theses, and surveys of recent articles in academic journals.