PhD student William Hansard publishes article on the traveling circus

Thursday, Feb 21, 2019

Congratulations to Transatlantic History Ph.D. student William Hansard on the publication of his article "The Greatest Show on Earth: Power, Spectacle, and Performance in the Traveling Circus."

Appearing on the website of the Journal of the Gilded and Progressive Era, the original article chronicles the influence of the Barnum & Bailey Circus on American popular culture by way of describing the the circus's 1903 season. 

As Hansard notes:

"At every turn, the traveling circus in the United States was an exercise in hyperbole and spectacle; the Barnum & Bailey circus did, after all, refer to itself as the “Greatest Show on Earth!” To Americans, spectacle and power were nearly synonymous, and the circus was an incomparable experience and a force to be reckoned with. The circus, through methods sometimes as simple as using opera chairs, came to serve as a symbol of the United States’ industrial prowess and ever-growing significance on the world stage."

To read the full piece, follow the link in the the title above.