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lckrgr's review against another edition
3.0
This was fine, but I understand why it is not more highly rated... it is absolutely an academic treatise on Depression era culture rather than a popular history. It delves into a number of now long forgotten novels and spends a great deal of times analyzing these in depth. It also touches on the more familiar cultural touchstones (Fred and Ginger, Screwball comedy, Jazz), but to a lesser degree.
catiew's review against another edition
1.0
FINALLY FINISHED
This is not a quick or easy or compelling read.
This is not a quick or easy or compelling read.
toddlleopold's review against another edition
Really wanted to enjoy this, but after five years of stops and delays, and not even 50 pages read, Enough. Too high-flown and not very engaging.
pemuth59's review against another edition
3.0
"Cultural history" is a great concept. Accepting that history is more than wars and elections and politics, books like this can offer fascinating insights into what a period of time was like for those who lived through it. Morris Dickstein's "Dancing in the Dark" is only partially successful.
While often interesting, Dickstein's saga is seldom compelling. And it's hard to beat the 1930s for cultural drama. But, if you haven't read the books or seen the movies or heard the music, this can read like a textbook. So I somewhat enjoyed the sections about the movies and music, but not much about the books, although the sections on F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck are quite good. Too often, though, Dickstein forces the average reader to follow his various theses, rather than doing what the great historical writers do -- bring history alive through great storytelling.
As the great rock poet Pete Townshend once said,"writing about music is like dancing about architecture." The same could be said for writing about culture -- it's hard to dance to a band with no rhythm.
While often interesting, Dickstein's saga is seldom compelling. And it's hard to beat the 1930s for cultural drama. But, if you haven't read the books or seen the movies or heard the music, this can read like a textbook. So I somewhat enjoyed the sections about the movies and music, but not much about the books, although the sections on F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck are quite good. Too often, though, Dickstein forces the average reader to follow his various theses, rather than doing what the great historical writers do -- bring history alive through great storytelling.
As the great rock poet Pete Townshend once said,"writing about music is like dancing about architecture." The same could be said for writing about culture -- it's hard to dance to a band with no rhythm.
randybo5's review against another edition
2.0
Probably a great book for a movie or book fan of the 1930's. Requires a great deal of background knowledge to appreciate it. It would be an excellent reference book, but wasn't an enjoyable read.
judyward's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this book despite the fact that it was not as readable as I had hoped it would be. But then, I have a fascination with American history so, of course, I was hooked. Dickstein views the culture of the United States during the Great Depression has having a split personality. There are the plays of Clifford Odets and novels such as the Grapes of Wrath, and then there are Busby Berkeley productions and escapism through movies such as those starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. An interesting analysis of the wide varieties of cultural reactions to the realities of the 1930s.
karireads's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
This is not an overview of all the art of the 30s (how exhausting would that be?). It's an overview of artistic trends primarily in books and movies, with deep looks at specific examples that Dickstein believes are representative of them. Grapes of Wrath, both book and movie loom large, as do musicals of Busby Berkeley and Astaire/Rogers, but also less well known works like Call It Sleep and Studs Lonigan. Music itself plays a lesser role, and though you can't talk about 1930s culture without Gershwin and Woody Guthrie, it's clear that these are topics that Dickstein regards as outside his area of expertise.
I love the literature of that era and have read all but one of the books he discussed, so I found those sections interesting. I don't know the movies as well, but ironically found those sections faster reading.
It does suffer a bit from the inevitable simplifications that occur when the history is not the focus, but it does not pretend to be a history of the era, just a discussion of the cultural trends.
Dense, well-researched, and well-developed. If you are interested in the topic, you won't find a better source.
I love the literature of that era and have read all but one of the books he discussed, so I found those sections interesting. I don't know the movies as well, but ironically found those sections faster reading.
It does suffer a bit from the inevitable simplifications that occur when the history is not the focus, but it does not pretend to be a history of the era, just a discussion of the cultural trends.
Dense, well-researched, and well-developed. If you are interested in the topic, you won't find a better source.
carolynf's review against another edition
2.0
I hate misnamed books. This is not a *cultural* history of the Great Depression. That would include music, fashion, slang, hobbies, and other aspects of daily life. This is a *literary* history of the Great Depression, featuring novels unknown to any except English majors. Towards the end they throw in a chapter on movies and a chapter on Woody Guthrie, but that doesn't quite cut it.
justabean_reads's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Covering conflicting strains in artistic expression throughout the depression across all mediums. The book started with a close focus on Michael Gold's Jews Without Money (which I've read and enjoyed) and Henry Roth's Call It Sleep (which apparently I ought to read), thus setting up tension between social justice message-focused media, and more ambiguous modernist works. It was fairly dense and covers a lot of works I wasn't familiar with, especially in terms of novels, and more or less only deals with American works. I felt like it could have spent more time dealing with sexuality and gender, which basically get one chapter at the end, but there was quite a bit about Black writers. The author teaches this topic, and often includes anecdotes about his students trying to interpret the material, as well as his own first encounters with it in the 1950s and 1960s, which added an approachable edge. It will comprehensibly spill the plot details of every major artistic work of the 1930s, in case you didn't want to be spoiled on any of them.