Wolfson Humanities Society: 'The Rise of Mass Advertising: Law, Enchantment and the Cultural Boundaries of British Modernity'

The Wolfson Humanities Society will be hosting a talk: 'The Rise of Mass Advertising: Law, Enchantment and the Cultural Boundaries of British Modernity' given by Dr Anat Rosenberg, Harry Radzyner Law School, Reichman University in conversation with Dr Jennifer Davis, Faculty of Law, Cambridge, and Dr Ben Griffin, Faculty of History, Cambridge

The Rise of Mass Advertising (OUP, 2022) is a first cultural legal history of advertising in Britain, tracing the rise of mass advertising c.1840-1914 and its legal shaping. The emergence of this new system disrupted the perceived foundations of modernity. The idea that culture was organized by identifiable fields of knowledge, experience, and authority came under strain as advertisers claimed to share values with the era's most prominent fields, including news, art, science, and religiously inflected morality. While cultural boundaries grew blurry, the assumption that the world was becoming progressively disenchanted was undermined, as enchanted experiences multiplied with the transformation of everyday environments by advertising. Magical thinking, a dwelling in mysteries, searches for transfiguration, affective connection between humans and things, and powerful fantasy disrupted assumptions that the capitalist economy was a victory of reason. The Rise of Mass Advertising examines how contemporaries came to terms with the disruptive impact by mobilizing legal processes, powers, and concepts.

The talk will take place in the Gatsby Room, Wolfson College, where drinks will be served from 5:20, and also on Zoom. For more details and to register for the event on Zoom see: https://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/about/events/rise-mass-advertising-law-enc...