Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements - Softcover

Nasaw, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674356225 ISBN 13: 9780674356221

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1999

Synopsis

David Nasaw has written a sparkling social history of twentieth-century show business and of the new American public that assembled in the city's pleasure palaces, parks, theaters, nickelodeons, world's fair midways, and dance halls.

The new amusement centers welcomed women, men, and children, native-born and immigrant, rich, poor and middling. Only African Americans were excluded or segregated in the audience, though they were overrepresented in parodic form on stage. This stigmatization of the African American, Nasaw argues, was the glue that cemented an otherwise disparate audience, muting social distinctions among "whites," and creating a common national culture.

About this title

From the Publisher

An evocative account of the rise and fall of urban mass amusements. Nasaw argues that at the turn of the century, as "going out" became a part of everyday life in American cities, a middle-class cosmopolitan culture emerged and class, ethnic, and religious barriers dissolved.

From the Back Cover

David Nasaw's fine history of public amusements in urban America is such a welcome contribution to contemporary cultural debate ... Nasaw unearths fascinating details about everything from the early history of the movies to pre-World War I dance crazes; and he raises fundamental questions about the web of connections joining commercial play, public space and cultural cohesion.-Jackson Lears, New York Times Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0674356225
• ISBN 13: 9780674356221
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320