Dancing in the dark : a cultural history of the Great Depression / Morris Dickstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dickstein, Morris.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture--United States--History--20th century.

Popular culture.

United States.

History.

United States--Civilization--1918-1945.

Civilization.

United States--Intellectual life--20th century.

Intellectual life.

United States--Social life and customs--1918-1945.

Manners and customs.

Depressions--1929--United States.

Depressions.

United States--History--1933-1945.

United States--History--1919-1933.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 598 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton, [2009]

Summary:

Dancing in the Dark shows how our worst economic crisis, as it eroded American individualism and punctured the American dream, produced in the 1930s some of the greatest writing, photography, and mass entertainment ever seen in this country.

Contents:

Depression culture

Discovering poverty. The tenement and the world : immigrant lives ; The starvation army ; The country and the city ; Hard times for poets ; Black girls and native sons

Success and failure. Beyond the American dream ; What price Hollywood? ; The last film of the 1930s, or, Nothing fails like success

The culture of elegance. Fantasy, elegance, mobility : the dream life of the 1930s ; Class for the masses : elegance democratized

The search for community. The populist turn : Copland and the popular front ; Who cares? : the world of Porgy and Bess ; The People vs. Frank Capra : populism against itself ; Shakespeare in overalls : an American troubadour

Gender trouble : exposing the intellectuals ; Conclusion : the work of culture in Depression America.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [533]-564) and index.

ISBN:

9780393072259

0393072258

OCLC:

317473436