The Popular and the Public" brings together a range of international scholars to examine how popular culture has shaped the public sphere, providing an alternative space for political debate in 19th and 20th Century India, Africa and Europe. A diverse range of case studies include: competition between Christians, Muslims and Traditionalists within public culture in Nigeria, popular music and songs of war and peace in Uganda, Battala chap-books, popular painting and battles over urban space in Calcutta, Islamic festivals and moral debates around AIDS and crime in post-apartheid South Africa, Danish orientalism, nationalist journalism in Kenya, and notions of 'miraculous literacy' among Evangelical Christians in Africa.