Nasaw, D: Going Out - The Rise & Fall of Public Amusements

David Nasaw

ISBN 10: 0674356225 / ISBN 13: 9780674356221

Published by Harvard University Press, 1999

About this Item

This is a social history of 20th-century show business and the new American public that assembled in the city s pleasure places, parks, theatres, nickledeons, world s fair midways and dance halls. African Americans were segregated and this cemented the rest.

Seller Inventory # 594874435

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Nasaw, D: Going Out - The Rise & Fall of Public Amusements
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674356225
• ISBN 13: 9780674356221
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

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 the Author

David Nasaw is Professor of History and American Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.