The Jazz Problem: Education and the Battle for Morality During the Jazz Age

Hardesty, Jacob W.

ISBN 10: 1438494645 / ISBN 13: 9781438494647

Published by State University of New York Press, 2024

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Jazz Problem: Education and the Battle for Morality During the Jazz Age
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1438494645
• ISBN 13: 9781438494647
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

How jazz spurred a generational debate that reshaped American culture.

The Jazz Problem shows how high schools and colleges were the primary sites of this generational debate around jazz, the century's first cultural war. Schools were crucial sites of dispute between the worldviews of the late nineteenth century and the emerging modern world, one synonymous with jazz. As a major site of character formation where students came of age, high schools and colleges were the places where jazz was simultaneously celebrated and denigrated. Educators saw jazz as inseparable from other vices, such as smoking, drinking, "immodest dress" (for women), and some degree of sexual activity. Yet young people felt jazz was their music and relished the sense of generational autonomy that came with their affinity for jazz. This book offers a fresh and compelling look at the jazz controversy and how it shaped not only America.

About the Author

Jacob Hardesty is Dean of the College of Social Science, Commerce, and Education and Associate Professor of Education at Rockford University.