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Reviewed by:
  • Circus and the City: New York, 1793–2010 by Matthew Wittmann, and: The American Circus ed. by Susan Weber, Kenneth L. Ames, and Matthew Wittmann
  • Linda Simon
Circus and the City: New York, 1793–2010. By Matthew Wittmann. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012; pp. 208.
The American Circus. Edited by Susan Weber, Kenneth L. Ames, Matthew Wittmann. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012; pp. 472.

In 1768, ex-cavalry officer Philip Astley staged equestrian shows in the circular arena of his London riding school, with clowns and acrobats performing between acts, thus inaugurating the modern circus. Astley’s success inspired rivals throughout England and abroad. In 1793, the British rider John Bill Ricketts brought his circus to Philadelphia, where he included jugglers, acrobats, music, and mime as diversions from his astonishing equestrian feats. George Washington, himself an accomplished horseman, was one of Ricketts’s fans. Success in Philadelphia made it possible for Ricketts to take his show on the road—to New York, Boston, and, during the winter, throughout the South. Although production expenses and unpredictable weather made it a precarious business, the circus proliferated, and by the early nineteenth century, tent shows and traveling by wagon had become an intrinsic part of American culture; in small towns across the country, circus days were exclamation points in the mundane prose of everyday life.

By the turn of the century, ninety-eight circuses vied for the public’s attention. Mud shows, so-called because circus wagons traveling in bad weather often found their wheels sunk in mud, often were small enterprises; some of these consolidated, hoping to compete favorably with ambitious showman P. T. Barnum. In 1871, at age 65, Barnum joined the ranks of impresarios and transformed the circus into what he proclaimed to be “The Greatest Show on Earth.” The first to move the circus by rail, Barnum transformed the spectacle into a traveling city that pushed mass culture to western frontiers.

Soon, the one-ring circus grew to two rings, and then three, with two platforms, so that five acts went on simultaneously. Circuses incorporated menageries, and these grew also to include hundreds of horses, scores of elephants, and cage after cage of big cats. Sideshows featured human anomalies: conjoined twins, giants and midgets, fat women and strong men, and “exotic” humans, such as Africans demonstrating indigenous tools. By the time Barnum died in 1891, the circus had moved to the forefront of the entertainment industry, appealing to audiences across class and racial divides—even if separate shows had to be offered in some areas of the country for blacks and whites. [End Page 434]

A vibrant form of popular entertainment since the nation’s inception, the circus has earned increased attention, especially during the last decade, by scholars of material culture, performance history, American studies, gender studies, and art history, among other fields. Circus and the City: New York, 1793–2010 and The American Circus are two significant contributions to this burgeoning interest in the circus; each book examines how the circus has both shaped and reflected the economic, social, and political contexts from which it emerged. What, these authors ask, is American about the American circus?

Both volumes are connected to an exhibition mounted at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery during the autumn of 2011. Circus and the City serves as the exhibition’s beautifully illustrated catalog, with both an extensive essay and illustration captions that provide a historical overview of the development of the circus in New York. A useful chronology sets circus history in wider historical contexts. An appendix reproduces four fascinating reviews of the circus at different points in its history: a lively and detailed 1839 article from The Knickerbocker; Walt Whitman’s 1856 review of Dan Rice’s circus; an opening-day review of the Barnum & Bailey circus from 1903; and theatre critic Brooks Atkinson’s review of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1942, during World War II.

The circus, of course, was not limited to New York City, and The American Circus offers seventeen essays by noted scholars, including American circus historian Janet Davis, Victorian scholar Brenda Assael, theatre and drama professor Peta...

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