Dancing in the Dark by Morris Dickstein
Finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism: from Agee to Astaire, Steinbeck to Ellington, the creative energies of the Depression against a backdrop of poverty and economic disaster.
"What will they be writing about our cultural endeavors 70 years from now? That's the question that keeps coming up when you read Dancing in the Dark, Morris Dickstein's fascinating examination of how the Great Depression influenced art, music, and literature" "The Big Books of Fall" "[A] judiciously researched, persuasively argued, elegant analysis of Depression culture... Dickstein is...exhaustive without being exhausting, and his book is a commendable compression of a complex decade." -- Saul Austerlitz "Starred Review. His scintillating commentary illuminates an important dimension of a decade too often considered only in political or economic terms...It's hard to imagine a more astute, more graceful guide to a remarkably creative period." "[A] bighearted, rambling new survey of American culture in the nineteen-thirties... Dickstein...values the popular culture of the Depression, and writes with enthusiasm about Cole Porter's wit, George Gershwin's jazz cadences, and the racing stripes and shiny surfaces of Art Deco." -- Caleb Crain "Dickstein looks beyond the mainstream to the nation's minorities, whose powerlessness made economic hardships even harder to bear, and he details the contributions of African Americans and immigrant Jews to American culture. Parallels to contemporary economic conditions mark this as an exceptionally relevant book." -- Mark Knoblauch "A significant historical work. A wonderful cultural historian, Morris Dickstein has written a book that lends testimony to the perseverance of the nation at that time." -- Gay Talese
Morris Dickstein (1940—2021) was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English and Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center and the author of Gates of Eden, Dancing in the Dark, an award-winning cultural history of the Great Depression, and Why Not Say What Happened, a memoir.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780393072259 |
| ISBN 10 | 0393072258 |
| Title | Dancing in the Dark |
| Author | Morris Dickstein |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | WW Norton & Co |
| Year published | 2009-10-06 |
| Number of pages | 624 |
| Prizes | Winner of Ambassador Book Awards (American Studies) 2010, Commended for National Book Critics Circle Award (Criticism) 2009 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |