The Dandy: A People's History of Sartorial Splendour

A history of the dandy from below, from Beau Brummell and Baudelaire to Bowie and Bolan... and beyond.

The historical figure of the dandy has commonly been described as an upper-class gentleman, often exemplified by well-known men such as Beau Brummell, Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, and Max Beerbohm. But there is a broader history to be told about the dandy - one that incorporates unknown men from the lower strata of society.

The Dandy: A People's History constitutes the first ever history of those dandies who emanated from the less privileged layers of the populace - the lowly clerks, shop assistants, domestic servants, and labourers who increasingly during the modern age have emerged as style-conscious men about town. Peter Andersson shows that dandyism is far from just an elite phenomenon represented by famous poets and artists. He shows how dandyism as a popular youth subculture grew into an influential cultural movement, from the days of Beau Brummell in the early 19th century to the age of mods in the 1960s.

A series of fascinating in-depth studies of the wide variety of dandy subcultures that have surfaced around the world in the last two centuries tell the story of how the shaping of fashions and the image of men became increasingly democratized, with the arbiters of taste increasingly coming from the other end of the social spectrum. Along the way, we encounter such long-forgotten groups as the mashers, the knuts, the Paris gandins and the Berlin transgender dandies, alongside more well-known but unexplored figures like the zoot suiter, the teddy boy, and the New Romantic.

Above all, this is a story of how fundamental aspects of modern culture such as fashion, style, and conduct have been shaped from below just as much as from above. It is a story that shows how the problematic business of young men trying to find an identity is an enduring phenomenon - and one sadly often accompanied by innocent victims along the way.

Author: Peter K. Andersson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 09/15/2025
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.34lbs
Size: 9.49h x 6.44w x 1.39d
ISBN: 9780198882435


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2025
Library Journal 07/18/2025 pg. 1

About the Author
Peter K. Andersson

Peter K. Andersson is a historian and writer, with a PhD in History from Lund University in Sweden. He has been a visiting scholar at the universities of London, Oxford, and Bologna, and has written extensively on Victorian cultural history, urban history, and popular culture. His previous books include Streetlife in Late-Victorian London (2013) and Fool: In Search of Henry VIII's Closest Man (2023), and he has contributed to periodicals such as The TLS, History Today, and Journal of Victorian Culture.