Dancing in the Streets by Barbara EhrenreichCall Number: GT3940 .E47 2007
ISBN: 0805057234
Publication Date: 2007-01-09
Cultural historian Ehrenreich explores a human impulse that has been so effectively suppressed that we lack even a term for it: the desire for collective joy, historically expressed in ecstatic revels of feasting, costuming, and dancing. She uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. She chronicles the numerous historical efforts by religious and civic authorities to suppress mass festivities, and the persistent popular responses of revolution and revelry. Contemporary examples include the rebellious spirit of 1960s rock-and-roll and the more recent "carnivalization" of sports.