Slumming : Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885-1940

Chad Heap

ISBN 10: 0226322440 / ISBN 13: 9780226322445

Editore: The University Of Chicago Press Okt 2010, 2010

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Neuware - From its appearance as a 'fashionable dissipation' centered on the immigrant and working-class districts of 1880s New York through its spread to Chicago and into the 1930s nightspots frequented by lesbians and gay men, this book charts the development of slumming.

Codice articolo 9780226322445

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Slumming : Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885-1940
• Editore: The University Of Chicago Press Okt 2010
• Data di pubblicazione: 2010
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0226322440
• ISBN 13: 9780226322445
• Rilegatura: Taschenbuch
• Condizione: Neu
• Dimensioni: 23 L x 15 A x 2 P (millimetri) 23 millimetri di larghezza per 15 millimetri di altezza per 2 millimetri di profondità
• Peso: 595 grammi

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

During Prohibition, “Harlem was the ‘in’ place to go for music and booze,” recalled the African American chanteuse Bricktop. “Every night the limousines pulled up to the corner,” and out spilled affluent whites, looking for a good time, great jazz, and the unmatchable thrill of doing something disreputable.

That is the indelible public image of slumming, but as Chad Heap reveals in this fascinating history, the reality is that slumming was far more widespread—and important—than such nostalgia-tinged recollections would lead us to believe. From its appearance as a “fashionable dissipation” centered on the immigrant and working-class districts of 1880s New York through its spread to Chicago and into the 1930s nightspots frequented by lesbians and gay men, Slumming charts the development of this popular pastime, demonstrating how its moralizing origins were soon outstripped by the artistic, racial, and sexual adventuring that typified Jazz-Age America. Vividly recreating the allure of storied neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village and Bronzeville, with their bohemian tearooms, rent parties, and “black and tan” cabarets, Heap plumbs the complicated mix of curiosity and desire that drew respectable white urbanites to venture into previously off-limits locales. And while he doesn’t ignore the role of exploitation and voyeurism in slumming—or the resistance it often provoked—he argues that the relatively uninhibited mingling it promoted across bounds of race and class helped to dramatically recast the racial and sexual landscape of burgeoning U.S. cities.

Packed with stories of late-night dance, drink, and sexual exploration—and shot through with a deep understanding of cities and the habits of urban life—Slumming revives an era that is long gone, but whose effects are still felt powerfully today.

Informazioni sull?autore

Chad Heap is associate professor of American studies at the George Washington University.