Circus Life: Performing and Laboring under America's Big Top Shows, 1830-1920

The nineteenth century saw the American circus move from a reviled and rejected form of entertainment to the “Greatest Show on Earth.” Circus Life by Micah D. Childress looks at this transition from the perspective of the people who owned and worked in circuses and how they responded to the new incentives that rapid industrialization made possible.

The circus has long been a subject of fascination for many, as evidenced by the millions of Americans that have attended circus performances ove...