Free Delivery Over $100
|
|
|||
|
||||
Overview"Open from 1942 until 1945, the Hollywood Canteen was the most famous of the patriotic home front nightclubs where civilian hostesses jitterbugged with enlisted men of the Allied Nations. Since the opening night, when the crowds were so thick that Bette Davis had to enter through the bathroom window to give her welcome speech, the storied dance floor where movie stars danced with soldiers has been the subject of much U.S. nostalgia about the ""Greatest Generation."" Drawing from oral histories with civilian volunteers and military guests who danced at the wartime nightclub, Sherrie Tucker explores how jitterbugging swing culture has come to represent the war in U.S. national memory. Yet her interviewees' varied experiences and recollections belie the possibility of any singular historical narrative. Some recall racism, sexism, and inequality on the nightclub's dance floor and in Los Angeles neighborhoods, dynamics at odds with the U.S. democratic, egalitarian ideals associated with the Hollywood Canteen and the ""Good War"" in popular culture narratives. For Tucker, swing dancing's torque-bodies sharing weight, velocity, and turning power without guaranteed outcomes-is an apt metaphor for the jostling narratives, different perspectives, unsteady memories, and quotidian acts that comprise social history." Full Product DetailsAuthor: Sherrie TuckerPublisher: Duke University Press Imprint: Duke University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.558kg ISBN: 9780822357575ISBN 10: 0822357577 Pages: 408 Publication Date: 17 October 2014 Audience: College/higher education , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Prologue. Dance Floor Democracy? xiii Introduction. Writing on a Crowded Dance Floor 1 Part I. On Location: Situating the Hollywood Canteen (and Swing Culture as National Memory) in Wartime Los Angeles 1. Wrestling Hollywood to the Map 25 2. Cruising the Cahuenga Pass(t) 51 3. Operating from the Curbstone 76 Part II. Patriotic Jitterbugs: Tracing the Footsteps of the Soldier-Hostess Dyad 4. Dyad Democracy 107 5. Injured Parties 146 6. Torquing Back 179 Part III. Women in Uniforms, Men in Aprons: Dancing outside the Soldier-Hostess Dyad 7. The Dyad from Without 199 8. The View from the Mezzanine 212 9. Men Serving Men 226 Part IV. Swing Between the Nation and the State 10. (Un)American Patrol: Following the State on the Dance Floor of the Nation 243 11. The Making(s) of National Memory: Hollywood Canteen (the Movie) 281 Notes 321 Bibliography 351 Index 365ReviewsThe publication of Dance Floor Democracy elevates cultural studies scholarship to new levels of sophistication and significance. Sherrie Tucker's impressive skills as an oral historian, musicologist, and gender studies specialist coupled with her focused attention on the particularities of place and time have enabled her to craft an exemplary book. A book that is at one and the same time, a social history of the U.S. home front during World War II, a magnificent demonstration of how commercial culture functions as a historical force, and a generative exploration into the tensions between appeals to hierarchy and appeals to equality that lie at the heart of U.S. political culture. --George Lipsitz, author of Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story The publication of Dance Hall Democracy elevates cultural studies scholarship to new levels of sophistication and significance. Sherrie Tucker's impressive skills as an oral historian, musicologist, and gender studies specialist coupled with her focused attention on the particularities of place and time have enabled her to craft an exemplary book. A book that is at one and the same time, a social history of the U.S. home front during World War II, a magnificent demonstration of how commercial culture functions as a historical force, and a generative exploration into the tensions between appeals to hierarchy and appeals to equality that lie at the heart of U.S. political culture. --George Lipsitz, author of Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story Author Information"Sherrie Tucker is Professor of American Studies at the University of Kansas. She is the author of Swing Shift: ""All-Girl"" Bands of the 1940s and coeditor of Big Ears: Listening for Gender in Jazz Studies, both also published by Duke University Press." Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
||||
