Awards

• Commended for National Book Critics Circle Award (Criticism) 2009
• Winner of Ambassador Book Awards (American Studies) 2010

Overview

From Agee to Astaire, Steinbeck to Ellington, the creative energies of the Depression against a backdrop of poverty and economic disaster. In this timely and long-awaited cultural history of the 1930s, Morris Dickstein, whom Norman Mailer called one of our best and most distinguished critics of American literature, explores the anxiety and hope, the despair and surprising optimism of distressed Americans at a time of dire economic dislocation. Bringing together a staggering range of materials -- from epic Dust Bowl migrations and sharecropper photographs to zany screwball comedies, wildly popular swing bands, and streamlined Deco designs -- this eloquent work highlights the pivotal role of culture and government intervention in hard times. Exploding the myth that Depression culture was merely escapist, it concentrates instead on the dynamic energy and insight the arts could provide and the enormous lift they gave to the nation's morale. Dancing in the Dark shows how our worst economic crisis, as it eroded American individualism and punctured the American dream, produced some of the greatest writing, photography, and mass entertainment ever seen in this country.

Full Product Details

9780393072259

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Reviews

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 achieves something so remarkable with Dancing in the Dark that it hovers close to the miraculous: He almost makes you wish you'd been living in America during the 1930s. -- Gene Seymour

[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

Author Information

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.

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