A review by karireads
Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression by Morris Dickstein

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.