Joe Moran is a social and cultural historian who has written about everyday life, especially British everyday life from the mid-twentieth century until the present day. Moran studied international history and politics at

Leeds University The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed ...

before doing an MA in English literature and a DPhil in American studies at

Sussex University The University of Sussex is a public research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the South Downs National Park, and provide ...

.Harriet Swain,
Our next book club selection is from...
" ''Times Higher Education Supplement'', 5 January 2007. Accessed 28 February 2009. The Mass-Observation Archive at Sussex was what aroused his interest in studying the everyday; Moran credits his own interest in taking note of what normally goes unnoticed to the I-Spy booklets he consumed as a young boy. Quoting Doreen Massey, Moran says that despite every generation's emphasis on change, "much of life for many people 'still consists of waiting in a bus shelter with your shopping for a bus that never comes'"; he describes himself as "trying to find a critical language to talk about these empty, purposeless moments of daily life, filled with activities such as commuting and office routines, that we generally take for granted but that take up so much of our lives."The Value of Trivial Pursuits
. ''Times Higher Education Supplement'', 2 March 2007. Accessed 28 February 2009. Moran describes himself as influenced by Mass-Observation and a new French ethnography of the quotidian or ''infraordinary'', exemplified by works by

Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Ho ...

Marc Augé Marc Augé (; 2 September 1935 – 24 July 2023) was a French anthropologist. In an essay and book of the same title, ''Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity'' (1995), Augé coined the phrase " non-place" to refer to sp ...

and François Bon. Moran's book ''Queuing for Beginners'' is a chronological account, from breakfast to bed, of a normal British day and how it has changed since the nineteenth century and more particularly since the 1930s; the book received favourable reviews. As of August 2013, Moran is a professor of English and Cultural History at

Liverpool John Moores University Liverpool John Moores University (abbreviated LJMU) is a public university, public research university in the city of Liverpool, England. The university can trace its origins to the Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts, established in 1823. This ...

. He has written for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

''.List of contributions
to ''The New Statesman''. Accessed 28 February 2009.

Books by Moran

*''Star Authors: Literary Celebrity in America.'' London: Pluto Press, 1999. .
At Google Books.
*''Interdisciplinarity.'' London: Routledge. Hardback: 2001; . Paperback: 2002; .
At Google Books.
*''Reading the Everyday.'' London: Routledge, 2005. Hardback: . Paperback: .
At Google Books.
*''Queuing for Beginners: The Story of Daily Life from Breakfast to Bedtime.'' Hardback. London: Profile Books, 2007. . Paperback. London: Profile Books, 2008. . *''On Roads: A Hidden History.'' Hardback. London: Profile Books, 2009. . *''Armchair Nation: An intimate history of Britain in front of the TV.'' Hardback. London: Profile Books, 2013. . *''First You Write a Sentence. The Elements of Reading, Writing … and Life.'' Penguin. 2018. * *''If You Should Fail: A Book of Solace.'' Hardback. London: Viking Books, 2020.

References

External links

Joe Moran's blog
("On the Everyday, the Banal, and Other Important Matters").

" ''The Book Show.''

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

. A talk with Moran as a guest.
Queuing
" '' Thinking Allowed.''

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. Moran talks with Laurie Taylor.
November in Berlin: The End of the Everyday
" ''History Workshop Journal'' 57 (2004) 216–234. An article by Moran.
Crossing the Road in Britain 1931-1976
" ''The Historical Journal'' 49 (2006), 477–96. {{DEFAULTSORT:Moran, Joe Living people Academics of Liverpool John Moores University Alumni of the University of Leeds Alumni of the University of Sussex British sociologists British historians British columnists The Guardian journalists Year of birth missing (living people)