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- Excellent academic text on Picasso's Prints of 1930s
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Myth and Metamorphosis: Picasso's Classical Prints of the 1930s
Lisa Florman
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0262062135 |
Book Description
Previous studies of Picasso's involvement with the classical have tended to concentrate on the period immediately following the First World War, and to attribute that involvement to both the rise of political conservatism in France and the domesticating influence of the artist's marriage to Olga Koklova. Focusing instead on the later, classicizing prints of the 1930s, this book offers a radically different view of Picasso and the "classical" -- a view that aligns his work much more closely with Surrealist, and specifically Bataillean, revisions of antiquity.
The book's argument is built around detailed analyses of several separate print series: Picasso's illustrations for Ovid's Metamorphoses, the etchings of the Vollard Suite, and The Minotauromachy. Common to all of them, the book shows, is a strong engagement not only with the classical, but with the viewer. In the latter, Picasso's prints are clearly at odds with the understanding of the relationship between classical art and its audience that prevailed throughout most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries -- an understanding that held the work's purported autonomy to mirror the viewer's own. By exposing that autonomy as a fantasy, Picasso opens the "classical" work and its viewer alike to the entanglements of desire and the dissolution of boundaries it inevitably brings.
Much of the argument turns on close readings of key Surrealist texts by Georges Bataille, Michel Leiris, and Roger Caillois. Even more important, however, are the prints' numerous references, heretofore unnoticed, to specific works by, among others, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Goya. These references effectively create an alternative "classical" tradition out of which Picasso's etchings can be seen to have emerged.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent academic text on Picasso's Prints of 1930s.......2007-03-24
Academic but laid out so well that it is a pleasant and informative read for non-academics. Well researched and illustrated, in easy-to-follow chapters. The notes and references are excellent too, but it is the layout that is exceptional.
Amazon.com
Most popular books about the Stalin era feature the big names and a firm narrative shape: Robert Conquest's The Great Terror; Alan Bullock's Hitler and Stalin. Some books yield their revelations at a glance, like the stunning The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia.
But scholar Sheila Fitzpatrick is famous for letting the common people and the facts speak for themselves, in all their complexity. Her new book on Soviet life in the 1930s--based on research in newly opened archives--does for urbanites what her Heldt Prizewinning Stalin's Peasants did for rural victims. The many witnesses in this fascinating horror story cast doubt on Stalin's notorious 1935 slogan "Life has become better, comrades; life has become more cheerful."
A comment made by a victim of Ivan the Terrible would be more apt: "We Russians don't need to eat; we eat one another and this satisfies us." Famine, caused by bad weather and worse policies, plagued the decade, and life became a chronic struggle to wrest crumbs from an incompetent bureaucracy. Stalin's sly methods of deflecting blame from the state onto allegedly disloyal citizens provoked orgies of denunciation (which could backfire on denouncers). A mad starch factory director forbade comrades to get shaves or haircuts at home--it would have been disloyal to the factory's hairdresser. One kid, Pavlik Morozov, reported his father for grain hoarding in 1937, was murdered by relatives, and became a national hero to kids. Andrei Sakharov's future spouse Elena Bonner was shocked at her 9-year-old brother's response to his father's arrest: "Look what these enemies of the people are like--some of them even pretend to be fathers." The celebrated Moscow Children's Theater put on The Squealer, a drama strikingly like Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront.
Fitzpatrick gives a sense of what it really was like to live under the satanic circus master Stalin: it was beyond Kafka, and it was bloody hard work. --Tim Appelo
Book Description
Here is a pioneering account of everyday life under Stalin, written by a leading authority on modern Russian history. Focusing on the urban population, Fitzpatrick depicts a world of privation, overcrowding, endless lines, and broken homes, in which the regime's promises of future socialist abundance rang hollowly. We read of a government bureaucracy that often turned life into a nightmare, and of how ordinary citizens tried to circumvent it. We also read of the secret police, whose constant surveillance was endemic at this time, and the waves of terror, like the Great Purges of 1937, which periodically cast society into turmoil.
Customer Reviews:
Everyday life and the state under Stalin.......2007-04-06
Sheila Fitzpatrick, specialist in the Stalin period of the USSR, has written a counterpart to her history of peasants and their lives in this era (Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization). Here, in "Everyday Stalinism", she chronicles the urban experience of life under Stalin during the 1930s, with all its paranoia, hardship and oddities.
The book is focused in particular on the relationship of daily life and the state, with relatively little attention for cultural history. However, making much use of the Harvard Project interviews with Soviet citizens from this period, she offers a compelling and fascinating view into the attitude of Soviet citizens towards the state, towards Stalin, and towards each other. Much more than just a tale of survival under threat of secret police, Fitzpatrick shows how people got by in terms of getting consumer goods, getting ahead, and getting even. Of course the Great Purges are given due attention, but what is particularly interesting is that in this book we see those events, as well as the earlier show trials, from the bottom up: not the political history of Stalin eliminating his enemies, but a struggle for power between the Party elites (largely received with disinterest by the general populace), and subsequently a series of rapid repressive maneouvres that descend onto the unsuspecting middle level.
Fitzpatrick pays excellent attention also to social policy and what effect this had on women, social and ethnic minorities, and so on. The USSR as an "affirmative action empire" has been well chronicled: The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939 (Wilder House Series in Politics, History, and Culture). Nevertheless, Fitzpatrick's overview is clear and cogent, and we get also get a good idea of the immense advances in literacy, cultural knowledge and general outlook that were made in roughly the period 1927-1937. Whereas in 1926 only 57% of those aged between 9 and 49 were literate, in 1939 81% of the whole population was literate. Similarly, the entire mass of the population learned basic culture such as appreciating poetry, washing regularly, using soap and towels, not leaving cigarette butts everywhere and not spitting on the floor, etc.
Striking is the amount of critical letters and appeals that people kept sending to Party and Politburo leaders in the (often, but not always vain) hope of redress of grievances or changes in policy. This was already a set tradition dating back to Czarist times, but was maintained during the Revolution and post-Revolutionary period in the form of public debate in leftist papers and letters to Lenin (see Voices of Revolution, 1917). This gives us a good indication however of the public opinion in the Stalinist days, to which Fitzpatrick usefully adds the NKVD reports of overheard conversations and the like. This surprisingly indicates that skepticism towards Stalin himself as well as the general system was reasonably widespread, despite the "cult of the personality".
Overall, this is a well written and interesting history of urban life in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. It must be emphasized though (as this is not directly apparent from the book description) that it only deals with urban life, and only the 1930s. Neither WWII nor the post-War Stalinist period is discussed.
Must read.......2007-02-13
If you have an interest in Stalin and the 1930's, which include the purges, this book is a must for you. For the most part I study the Military and Political history of the early Soviet Union and I had this book on my shelf for years before I finally decided to read it. But once I began I was amazed at myself that I had waited so long to finally dive into this book! The author has really done her research and it shows!
The reader will get a much better and broader understanding of what life was like in the 1930's and how a new state was coming into its own. Why certain groups or 'classes' were being targeted by the state and what happened to them. How some changed their entire lives just to get away from the OGPU and later NKVD. And interestingly enough the policies implemented by the state worked against making it a safer place. As they aggravated one group after another through trials and forced movements they made enemies where in the past there might not have been any. It began to dawn on the government that these people would only seek vengeance once they were freed from punishment and it also created the idea that these people would be enemies for life. This, to a certain extent, explains why during the "Great Purge" which started in 1937 those released from GULag camps or special settlements, etc, were once again picked up and tried and sent to either prison or were executed.
The examples the author draws upon are an excellent representation of the time period and people's thoughts recount what they felt and desired while living through this turbulent, to say the least, decade. The one aspect of the Stalinist period that should be kept in mind, and appears throughout the book, is that no one was really safe in this time. From Communist officials who were being denounced by the hundreds to the regular man on the street who could be denounced because his apartment was bigger than his neighbors, or NKVD officials, one of whom a week before committing suicide visited and drank with the families of people who were denounced and he had to arrest and lastly even to Stalin's inner circle which witnessed the likes of Kaganovich losing his brother and Molotov his wife. A great contribution to the literature on Soviet Union under Stalin!
Impressed so far.......2007-02-11
Clearly it is well researched and (notwithstanding the author's Introduction) cuts through a lot of the politicised waffle that tends to accompany other books dealing with this period. You get an idea of the human and personal dynamics that were operating at the time. In short, the insight gained is sometimes surprising even when you think you know a lot about this period of history, i.e. the October Revolution and socialist construction. Only half way through the book as a matter of fact but you can tell from the outset that what you're reading is a study of substance that genuinely serves to inform the reader. I would say the author is one who is prepared to let facts speak for themselves.
Clear, concise, filled with information.......2006-08-10
This is a good, necessary, and essential book. It is compact and precise. Its aim is to provide massive information about Stalinist Soviet Union in the 1930s. It does so not by the analysis of high politics or the significant political events, but through a depiction of everyday life of urban inhabitants of the Soviet Union during these years.
Fitzpatrick tries to remain neutral, but so many of the disastorous conditions she records were clearly brought on by the Stalin bureaucracy's fear, its fear of workers, its fear of the intellectuals, its fear of those who held positions under Tsarism, its fear of those who had belonged to opposition factions in the Communist party, and fear of itself.
Whether what she provides is "new" is irrelevant except to the academically twisted. What she does is provide the realities of life in the USSR in those years as personally experienced whether in the cold, rancorous, barracks and apartments filled with four or five families of the plebian cities, or the luxurious dachas of the rising bureaucracy.
The strength of this book is its compactness and clarity and its lack of digressions. Fitzpatrick produces a very high amount of understandable information per page.
The one weaknesses of the book is that in order to do this, she tends to assume the reader's knowledge of Soviet history in the late 1920s and early 30s, particularly, "the cultural revolution," though many, especially popular, readers may know little or nothing about this. Perhaps this just invites the reader to explore the work of Fitzpatrick and her colleagues on these questions.
Nothing very much "new". .......2006-06-27
Professor Fitzpatrick has chosen to write a History of Stalin's Soviet Union during the 1930s (that is, at the height of the Great Purges) by focusing on doings at the private life sphere of common Soviet citizens of the time. Problem is, after we have read the book, we realize we've been told about the same old issues: de-kulakization, collectivization, shortages, queues, Yezhov, social mobility through the Party apparatus. The problem being, perhaps, that the whole book was based on a flimsy foundation, that of the opposition between the "private" & the "public" sphere, when actually, in the early Soviet Union, there was no "private" sphere at all, private life merged with public life entirely - something Professor Fitzpatrick acknowledge at the conclusions, but fails to draw the conclusion that the opposition between the private and the public is an historical construction, not an ontology. Therefore the book is informed and readable, but offers nothing that is altogether new.
Amazon.com
Literature and film buffs will be delighted by this collection of pulp novels, most of which were made into important films. James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice is a literary masterpiece with its spare prose invoking a savage, sexy, desperate world. It inspired no less than three great movies: Luchino Visconti's classic Ossessione, in 1942; the 1946 remake, starring John Garfield and Lana Turner and directed by the extraordinary Tay Garnett; and Bob Rafelson's underrated 1981 version with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange. When you read the magnificent source for these movies, you'll be astonished at how three different incarnations could all, in their own ways, be faithful to the novel.
Cornell Woolrich's I Married a Dead Man also became three movies: No Man of Her Own, with Barbara Stanwyk; the French I Married a Shadow; and the American comedy, Mrs. Winterborne, which starred Shirley MacLaine and Ricki Lake. Edward Anderson's vivid Thieves Like Us was transformed into They Live by Night, Nicholas Ray's first important movie and one of the seminal noir films of the 1940s. It was brilliantly remade in 1974 by the great revisionist director Robert Altman. Kenneth Fearing's The Big Clock was transformed into a marvelous film starring Charles Laughton; 40 years later, the same source, retitled No Way Out, brought Kevin Costner to stardom. William Lindsay Gresham's Nightmare Alley was the source for Tyrone Power's best movie; Horace McCoy's experimental They Shoot Horses, Don't They? became one of the seminal films of the 1960s.
These dark, evocative novels, when taken together, are a fascinating study of how words can inspire a magnificent variety of cinematic images and styles.
Customer Reviews:
Splendid Read.......2007-06-04
This collection of novels from the 30s and 40s was terrific fun and an outstanding introduction to the genre. You can debate whether they're all noir (at least what I expected noir to be); but nonetheless they each convey a distinct impression and view of the time. Without getting into lengthy reviews, I enjoyed Woolrich's "I Married a Dead Man" the most--from his eloquent style to the actual story-line. You know you're reading a master story-teller. Second was Gresham's "Nightmare Alley;" although sometimes I thought he could have expanded on some aspects of the story and shortened other passages (i.e., a little bit of editing would help). But each novel was distinct and enjoyable. Highly recommended.
Crime Novels -- 30s/40s.......2006-11-07
Ha! Just skimmed some other reviews and I wanna add my two cents. Yes, this volume is definitely something. Some impressions follow.
The Postman Always Rings Twice: Indeed, Cain knew how to make the reader keep turning pages. Short, sweet, and fascinating. After I discovered the significance of the title (which is a bit of a "trick"), I liked the whole effort all the more.
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?: A bit monotonous to read; a bit dark. That was the point. All told, a fascinating novel. Among all literature named in the world, *this* is one of few titles inspired by God: so memorable and unique, so perfect. It turns out to impart chilling meaning, as well, on several levels.
Thieves Like Us: My least favorite. This was a subjective reaction, however. I wanted the story to take turns it didn't take. Moreover, Anderson as an author took note of things I found not-so-interesting; apparently, the book's status to this day speaks otherwise on behalf of many other readers, however.
The Big Clock: Short, sweet and sterile. Almost machine-like in its plotting and execution -- if so written intentionally, a fascinating stylistic choice given its title -- but, notably, full of interesting and colorful characterizations. Possibly my favorite.
Nightmare Alley: Relentlessly grim and ugly. I'm not so sure there is a single character to root for in this story. That was probably very much intended. Fascinating but, again, very grim. Literary nihilists of today would do well to take a lesson from Gresham's characterization, plot and style.
I Married A Dead Man: Although the novels were presented chronologically, this was a nice way to end the volume. A very simple, linear, domestic story, without hard-boiled criminality or complication, which unfolds with some plot which stretches credibility, but lies ultimately within the realm of the possible. Notable among noir novels for Woolrich's ability to evoke two unexpected emotions at the end: a sense of deep and abiding love between two of the main characters -- before the real and final ending -- and a sense of genuine sadness.
Worth owning. Might take the reader a while to get through. This is, in effect, six books in one, running to nearly a thousand pages. But it was definitely fun; and as another reviewer implied, it's surprising how little has changed.
Thank God for the 1930's and 1940's/ .......2006-07-11
First of all, the Library Of America collection provides the reader with some of the most beautiful hardcover editions available today. That said, the selections chosesn for this edition are all first class; for someone just getting into hard-boiled fiction, this is the ideal place to start. If you're like me and have been reading this genre for many years, this is a perfect volume to add to one's collection.
The Dark Underbelly of the American Dream.......2005-09-29
Noir emerged in the early 20th-Century from Pulp paperbacks published for mass consumption. Highlighting in gritty and sensationalistic detail the sordid undercurrents of Western society, Noir became an artistic force that became the medium for the representation of the down and out segment of the populace. Whether set in the impersonal grime of urban reality or at the deceptive simplicity of rural picturesqueness, Noir in Film and Literature revealed the odyssey and travails of lost souls whose misguided characters bore too much of the weight of their selves and their pasts to break from the shackles of their present.
"Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930's and 40's" is the American equivalent in prose of the influential and enduring genre. The grim and unforgiving tales of the dejected cast of mid 20th-Century American life are openly depicted ("The Postman Always Rings Twice"; "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"; "Thieves Like Us"; "Nightmare Alley"); vicissitudes of fate ("The Big Clock"; "I Married a Dead Man"). Whether set in scenic California, the vast and open Midwest, or a high-rise office in Manhattan, these novels uniformly render a panorama of blighted dreams, twisted turns of fate, and the sad recurrence of misfortune in desperate individuals doomed to tragedy.
None too substantial in content but highly readable, this edition is the first of a handsome 2-Volume anthology on American Noir fiction published by the venerable Library of America. Edited by Robert Polito (Poet, writer, anthologist on Noir Lit. and author of a biography on Jim Thompson), these stories enduring relevance are seen in various forms of contemporary society: from the writings of James Ellroy, Brett Easton Ellis, Lawrence Block, and Robert Bloch; in films like "Scarface", "Pulp Fiction", "Fight Club"; and in everyday life.
A Real Discovery: 4 or 5 of these make amazing reading.......2005-01-23
This is an impressive collection of early and now scarce Noir novels. "The Big Clock" and "Nightmare Alley" are particularly hard to find outside of this volume.
Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice" was probably the first crime novel I ever really got into, and it's a stunning departure from Agatha Christie-style mysteries. So much happens in this short book (as turns of plot, but also development of character) that it compares favorably to the first half Camus' "The Stranger." The drifter plumbs the depths of his desperation in a brutal attachment to another man's wife: it's not greed or lust that drives him, but a base need for someone to whom he can anchor himself. A raw and amazing experience, unmatched by anything else of Cain's.
McCoy's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" is impressively vivid. I had no idea these dance-hall marathons took place before reading this story. This circus of exploitation of young and apparently desperate people certainly makes for excellent Noir. One of these benefits of reading these novels is the unearthing of buried episodes in America's past.
"Thieves Like Us" has been reviewed here as the weaker end of the collection, and I have to agree. It's still a very capable story of outlaws; and the stoicism of the young people caught up in the criminal's lives is admirably depicted here. I recommend reading Andersen's novel before the others (it's still definitive Noir), so one can more easily avoid expectations built up by the Cain and McCoy.
"The Big Clock" is interesting in the depiction of power relationships between employer and employee, and the shifting first-person style of telling the story works here. I never heard of Fearing before reading this novel, but he evidently had a deep understanding of the motivations of very different kinds of people. This novel has the most suspense of the collection, and is a great and sophisticated read.
The most surprising and bizzare novel is "Nightmare Alley," a strange and memorable journey of an aspiring carnival charlatan. It defines Sleaze. The longest and most complex novel, it feels like a long-lost classic that's been hidden away because of its disturbing content. Some may think of it as too long, but the twisting journey through sweaty farming towns, railroad stations and addled big-city martiarchs required time to establish some crediblity: by the end, I was convinced that such a grotesque collection of stunts actually belonged in the story of this country. "Nightmare Alley" alone is worth the price of the book. Fans of Tarot might be a little offended, but this is especially recommended for understanding fans of Ray Bradbury.
Finally, "I Married a Dead Man" by Woolrich is a suspense novel set up by a tragic accident. The protagonist, literally and figuratively hungry, siezes the opportunity to substitute herself into a more fortunate woman's life. Excellently done, and more grounded in comparison to "Nightmare Alley."
Overall, there's no legitimately weak entry in this collection. The variety of content in these novels is enormous, and acquiring this book will allow the reader to experience the different flavors of American Noir. Most modern crime/suspense movies will seem ridiculous by comparison.
Book Description
Casual clothing, swimwear in particular, is strongly associated with the California lifestyle, and the design and manufacture of casual clothing has long been the foundation of Californias garment industry. This book explores that industry as it developed in California from the 1930s through the 1970s, with emphasis on clothing and textile designs suffused with the sunshine spirit. Included are fashions from major swimwear companies such as Catalina, Cole, and Rose Marie Reid; sportswear from leaders like Koret and Alice of California; and a wonderful chapter paying tribute to that most western of fabrics, blue denim. More than 330 photographs and advertisements illustrate the colorful, cheerful, and charming nature of vintage casual clothing. Collectors, designers, and fashion historians will appreciate the profiles of California artisans and their influence on fabric technology. Includes price guide and a helpful glossary of fashion and fabric terminology.
Customer Reviews:
very cool book.......2004-11-18
Basically A Stitch in TIme is full of reprints of period knitting and crochet patterns along with the picture that appeared with the pattern when it was first published. SInce handcrafts tend to be time less (ie a sweater looks the same now as it did 100 years ago) I have to commend Waller on compiling this. The patterns here have a good amount of period feel to them. You get shoulders so high and pointed that they look as if they could take and eye out, a whole section on one piece swim suits and more interesting sleeves and collars than I can count.
I particularly liked the section on hats. Many of them are asymmetrical and parallel what ever style hat was popular at the time. No berets and skullcaps fit all approach here.
This is a really neato book. The patterns are very distinctive. I recommend it if you are curious about older patterns or want to make something that doesn't fit the normal knitting mold.
Customer Reviews:
Best Pinball Book Ever.......2006-07-20
I never buy books due to the fact you can read most stuff on the net. This book however, is so well researched and put together that I STRONGLY recommend buying it. There is so much informations, and a truck load of pictures of all sorts of tables.
Book Description
In the 1930s, Broadway's lights still burned brightly. Ethan Mordden completes his history of the Broadway musical by taking a look at this forgotten era. Shows like Anything Goes brought the glitter of Cole Porter and Merman's brass to the public. Innovations in dance were pioneered by Balanchine and others. Scenic advancements made Astaire's The Band Wagon move across the stage in novel ways. Gershwin's revolutionary Porgy and Bess entered the canon of American Classics. And The Cradle Will Rock and Johnny Johnson took the American political temperature. With his trademark wit and style, Ethan Mordden shines the spotlight on Broadway's forgotten decade.
Customer Reviews:
Pleasurable tome on 1930s musicals.......2005-11-02
Let's face it. You're either going to want to buy this book, or you're not. Very few people out there will be swayed one way or another by these reviews. However, in the hope that there's still one or two people sitting on the fence, I offer my wholehearted recommendation. This book contains more information than you ever wanted to know about 1930s musicals, always opinionated, and often very funny, too.
Basically, if you've read any of Ethan Mordden's other books, you know what to expect. Analysis, information, and humor, all delivered from a gay right-wing perspective. Some other reviewers have bashed Mordden for this, but hey - it's his book. A lot of the fun in these books is the fact that they're written like Mordden is just eating lunch with you and talking about musicals. If Mordden wanted to adopt a more formal tone, I'm sure he'd keep his political views out of the book, but I don't think I'd get nearly as much pleasure from them.
Another thing I love about Mordden is his way of turning obscure theatre references into jokes. For example, how many people will laugh while reading the sentence, "There was some dancing, but nothing for Albertina Rausch to really sink her teeth into." See, it's funny because...but it's really not funny if you have to explain it. Also, there's a running joke about the number of different "Tamara"s who play leading roles in many 1930s shows. I read this stuff and I crack up, but when I read the passages out loud to my friends, they don't get it.
For those of you who are wondering if Mordden offers detailed analyses of the more important shows of the decade, the answer is yes, he does. He speaks in depth on the strengths and weaknesses of the Gershwin political shows, Porter's Jubilee, Kern's...well, all of Kern's 1930s shows, and Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes, I'd Rather Be Right, and Boys From Syracuse, as well as Kurt Weill's 1930s shows and Blitzstein's Cradle Will Rock. I do wish he had gone into a little more detail about I Married An Angel, and surprisingly enough, his chapter on Porgy and Bess doesn't contain much new insight, but these are minor caveats.
My only other complaint is that this is the final book in his series, cause I don't want him to stop writing about musicals. Basically, if you love musicals, you should love this book. Because Mordden loves musicals, and you can see it in every page he writes.
Music For the Theatre..........2005-07-20
The Broadway theater was in a decline in the Thirties due to the Depression, and there were not big standouts, but many movie stars learned their trade during this decade on Broadway. His title, 'Sing For Your Supper' written by Rodgers and Hart came from a minor show, 'The Boys from Syracuse' which ran for 235 performances; the hit of the show was 'Falling in Love With Love.'
Porky and Bess was the biggest thing to come out of musical theater during that time (1935), though no memorable songs -- it was a black musical. However, it was the first American-made show to be recorded during its original run (four days after the opening) by the nation's main classical-record label, Victor Red Seal by RCA Victor. This was not an original cast recording but used Metropolitan Opera singers for the album.
In the photo section, there are two from this musical, five from 'Jubilee' and one from 'The Band Wagon.' Some of the stars of the Thirties Broadway musicals included Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ethel Merman, Sophie Tucker, Jimmy Durante, and Gene Kelly as one of five 'chorus boys' in 'Leave It to Me.'
In the musicals such big bands as Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Gene Krupa were in the pit. Memorable songs to make a lasting impression were 'But Not For Me,' which came from Gershwin's score of 'Girl Crazy'; 'Will You Remember Me?' from 'Knickerbocker's Holiday' (Michael Feinstein has a marvelous version on one of his CDs); 'I Can Dream, Can't I?' and 'I'll Be Seeing You' from 'Right This Way' (1938); and 'It's De-Lovely' by Cole Porter in 'Red, Hot and Blue!'
Lively overview of notable musical developments of the time.......2005-06-10
Fans of Broadway productions in general and musicals in particular won't want to miss the Broadway musical history provided by Ethan Mordden in Sing For Your Supper: The Broadway Musical In The 1930s. The 1930s were a period of depression for most Americans: it was also an era when Broadway produced some of the most enjoyable, fun productions ever. Mordden's long-time interest in Broadway productions and history has resulted in several other titles on various topics: this, more than most, covers the innovations and temperament of the times; from the evolution of operatic theatre and burlesque to circus productions and dance. History blends well with a lively overview of notable musical developments of the times.
Series ends on a high.......2005-06-09
After the nasty misanthropic tone of his last book, Mordden ends his epic series in the Broadway musical with something like a return to form. No mean achievement, as this decade, the Thirties, is fraught with more loony leftie commie pinko liberal types than any other. Mordden essentially gets round this problem by dismissing the received wisdom. While he is comparatively fair to both Kurt Weill and Marc Blitzstein, he points out that their left-leaning shows were the exception in the decade rather than the rule. Fair enough, but surely, in a decade wherein Broadway style mattered more than content, this very fact raises more questions than the writer answers (or cares to pose)?
Good Finale to the Series.......2005-04-29
Ethan Mordden can now rest. The author has taken the musical, in a decade by decade series, from the twenties and into the current crop of shows. The last volume to be published in this series is Sing for Your Supper, the Broadway musical in the 1930s. It is an improvement over the last two volumes and a return to the good work of the previous editions. The two problems with the book, though, are the author's need to spend as much time on an Encores version of a thirties show as the original show itself and, at times, the author's boredom with the thirties as a time of no particular historical interest for the historian of Broadway musicals. When an author seems to lose interest on occasion, it makes it harder for the reader to maintain his. Still, it is a satisfying concluding volume with all of the author's wit, insight, opinions, and general knowledge well-displayed, mixed in with little gems of trivia for the musical fan.
Book Description
During the Great Depression, a sense of total despair plagued the United States. Americans sought a convenient scapegoat and found it in the Mexican community. Laws forbidding employment of Mexicans were accompanied by the hue and cry to "get rid of the Mexicans!" The hysteria led pandemic repatriation drives and one million Mexicans and their children were illegally shipped to Mexico.
Despite their horrific treatment and traumatic experiences, the American born children never gave up hope of returning to the United States. Upon attaining legal age, they badgered their parents to let them return home. Repatriation survivors who came back worked diligently to get their lives back together. Due to their sense of shame, few of them ever told their children about their tragic ordeal.
Decade of Betrayal recounts the injustice and suffering endured by the Mexican community during the 1930s. It focuses on the experiences of individuals forced to undergo the tragic ordeal of betrayal, deprivation, and adjustment. This revised edition also addresses the inclusion of the event in the educational curriculum, the issuance of a formal apology, and the question of fiscal remuneration.
"Francisco Balderrama and Raymond Rodríguez, the authors of Decade of Betrayal, the first expansive study of Mexican repatriation with perspectives from both sides of the border, claim that 1 million people of Mexican descent were driven from the United States during the 1930s due to raids, scare tactics, deportation, repatriation and public pressure. Of that conservative estimate, approximately 60 percent of those leaving were legal American citizens. Mexicans comprised nearly half of all those deported during the decade, although they made up less than 1 percent of the country's population. 'Americans, reeling from the economic disorientation of the depression, sought a convenient scapegoat,' Balderrama and Rodríguez wrote. 'They found it in the Mexican community.'--American History
Decade of Betrayal focuses on the experiences of individuals illegally shipped from the U.S. to Mexico in the 1930s and the recent questions of a formal apology and fiscal remuneration.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Start.......2005-10-03
Balderrama explores an over looked chapter in American history--the deportation of hundreds of thousands of American citizens of Mexican descent during the Great Depression.
Unfortunately, he tries to argue that repatriation was not economically feasible for employers. I say what difference does it make? It's the same old argument we hear now: They do jobs nobody else will do. But what if they didn't? The fact is, the government has no right to deport its citizens, regardless of what they do for a living, regardless of their race/ethnicity/skin color.
Thios book is a great start, but more scholarship needs to be done in this area.
One of my great uncles, an American citizen of Mexican descent, was deported by the US government during the Depression because they wanted to free up jobs for the dustbowl refugees. To the reviewer who calls this sad chapter in our nation's history a "minor incident," I wonder how he would feel if he were uprooted and taken by the US government to a foreign country.
The reason this reviewer thinks something this huge is a "minor incident" is that he doesn't view people of Mexican descent as truly American. He sees anybody of Mexican descent as foreign even if they are American citizens just like him and therefore thinks it's no big deal for them to have been deported. Many of the American citizens who were deported had never been to Mexico and could not Speak Spanish. But even if they could, they were still AMERICANS and had every right to live and work in the United States, the nation of their birth, as much as any other American citizen.
Read before you review, please.......2005-06-18
I am wondering whether a few of the other reviewers have actually read Balderrama's book. I haven't finished it yet, but even I have figured out that Balderrama and Rodriguez are writing about how not only Mexican nationals were 'repatriated,' but also US-born, US citizens who happened to be of Mexican ancestry (and most likely not pale-skinned enough).
One of the principal questions the authors pose is: what is the relationship between legal citizenship and cultural citizenship? In other words, if even citizens get deported, many to a country they have never even seen, because of their imputed race, what does citizenship even mean? This question is very relevant today given the current scrutiny by ICE of immigrants, legal or not, and by all of DHS of citizens, especially those who fit certain suspect profiles.
The most interesting part of the book for me so far is the authors' in-depth look at Mexican families in the US in this period. In particular, their portrait of how families of Mexican descent were stereotyped and misunderstood by both the US and Mexican governments, and how as a result immigration and welfare policies were poorly formulated. It's worth thinking about how government policy can work (directly or indirectly) to either strengthen or break up families--and how many Mexican/American families (by this I mean families comprising people with Mexican and US citizenship) managed to stay together despite the economic and political struggles they faced.
Tenditious and Without Perspective.......2004-02-02
The deportations of the 1930s need to be put into historical perspective and not just labeled as another incident of how bad America is to Mexicans. In 1924, the Immigration Act shut down immigration from Europe; Mexicans were EXEMPTED from such quotas between 1924 and 1965 (unacknowledged by most Chicano polemicists who can't deal with the fact that a policy was biased against white Europeans benefitted non whites). According to historian John Womack, some 900,000 Mexicans entered the US between 1924 and 1930, some 630,000 illegally. So this wave continued unabated into the Depression, and with 25% unemployment, the Federal government decided to crack down on this migration. Europeans were not targeted because the waves of immigartion had already been shut down, and those who did enter did so legally throught the nation's ports; most Mexicans entered through a land border. Abraham Hoffman puts the number involved and deportedat 400,000, not 1 million, with about half leaving voluntarily and half forced. Fifty percent were US citizens, largely the children of illegal immigrants who left with their parents. Of course, there were many cases of discrimination, as Manuel Gonzeles points out, where the methods used, especially in Los Angeles, were heavy handed and even in some cases illegal. These individulas should receive compensation. But it is ridiculous to compare this to the forced migration of Indians or to say that this was a program of complete discrimination ala those which targeted African Americans, even though there were individual cases of such.
As for those who took Balderrama as a professor, of course Chicano activists want to portary all of their problems and poverty as simply the result of racist Anglos versus innocent Mexicans. While legal discrimination did exist in many individual areas in the Southwest, particularly South Texas, thsi ignores the fact that more than two-thirds of all Mexican immigrants have no high school diploma (versus only 8% of native whites and 13% of Asian immigrants), that more than 4 out of 5 are not proficient in English, or that Asian immigrants and their children, despite being subject to historically more vicious legal racism, actually do better than whites !!!The vast majority of Mexicans are immigrants or their immediate children who arrived after 1965, whose presence makes the tracking and progress of wages for Mexican Americans very difficult to measure.
Between 1920 and 1970, Mexicans were considered legally white by the govt.; they were allowed to intermarry with whites (unlike blacks and Asians); were allowed to get citizenship upon arrival (unlike Asian immigrants); served in all-white units during the SEcond World War (unlike blacks and Japanese); could vote and hold elected office in places such as Texas, especially San Antonio (unlike blacks); ran the state politics and elite of New Mexico since colonial times; went to integrated schools in Central Texas and Los Anegeles (unlike Blacks in the south and Asians in Southern California); were not subjected to immigration quotas like Europeans and Asians between 1924 and 1965.
According to the PPIC, Hispanics with similar education and occupation as whites make just as much in income; Asians in the similar situation make 10 to 15% MORE!!!! So while racism has been a factor, it is not the determining factor as to why Mexicans do or do not succeed. This is too much for Chicano professors and activists to acknowledge since their world is framed around victimology.
Chris
A Great Addition to Mexican-American History.......2003-11-15
Dr. Balderrama is a great historian. His research into the Mexican repatriation is told magnificently. I also happen to be one of his former students at CSULA. I do remember his class and enjoyed his lectures. Unlike other history professors at CSULA, his style of teaching and lecturing was memorable. His contribution to Mexican American history is invaluable. Great book! *****.
ERacism.......2003-09-17
I read the review by Michael Sturdevant and think he is probably a racists. I have took classes with Dr. Balderrama and can tell you he is a excellent teacher. He teaches his Chicano students about victimology and how they are victims of white America. This is very true. Some teachers think that Chicanos are struggling to get ahead because they are not as educated as white people. But Balderrama teached us that it is because we are victims that we can't make enough as the white people.
That is why Balderrama is suing the US government. Then the Chicano people will have billions of dollars to share with him. And we don't need to get more education. Just more money. I believe in Balderrama, I believe in victimology, and I only wish all Chicanos believed in victimology, then we would all be as rich as the white people.
Average customer rating:
- An outstanding contribution to fashion & cinema history.
|
Screen Style: Fashion and Femininity in 1930s Hollywood (Commerce and Mass Culture, V.2)
Sarah Berry
Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0816633134 |
Book Description
Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich-all were icons of beauty and glamour in 1930s Hollywood. Screen Style reveals the impact of celebrities like these on women filmgoers, looking beyond the surface of the films and fashions of the era-often described as forms of escapism from the difficult realities of the Depression-to show how Hollywood presented women with models for self-determination during a time of rapid social change. Revealing the public and cinematic fascination with the strong-willed women featured in so many movies-ambitious gold diggers, career-minded working girls, social climbers, dangerous androgynous females, and other exotics-Sarah Berry presents a lively look at films, fan magazines, and advertising of that time.
Sarah Berry writes on film, media, and cultural studies and designs interactive multimedia projects. She teaches film studies at Portland State University.
Customer Reviews:
An outstanding contribution to fashion & cinema history........2000-06-04
This survey of women's fashion issues in 1930s Hollywood provides a fine social history of 1930s film style, survey the impact of female celebrities on fashion and showing how Hollywood used actresses as models during a time of social change. Screen Style explores changes in fashion marketing approaches during the 1930s and is a recommended pick for students of fashion history.
Customer Reviews:
It just seems to fit with the Bungalow Style.......2006-12-02
The 1920's and '30's in the United States saw the construction of huge number of Bungalow in a great many US cities. These now 80 year old houses were often constructed in newly developed subdivisions. Now many of these subdivisions are being discovered as artistically attractive, close to town, shopping, entertainment. The bungalow houses often retain their characteristic style, and many even contain their original fittings such as light fixtures, plumbing, fireplaces.
This time, this style of home was made for Art Deco.
This book shows how these houses would have been decorated when they were new. The furniture, art, decorations, wall paper, paint colors, etc. just look like they belong in bungalows.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking at decorating a 1920's vintage bungalow.
Incredible History of Art Deco.......2005-09-08
Great book with many helpful photos. Great history of the art. Recommended to anyone who wants to know more about one of the 20th century's most important art forms.
Not impressed.......2005-04-23
This is a pretty dry book. First it helps to know a little French. Secondly, all this book does is throw in a couple hundred names of designers and places. Third, when the author speak of different designs which were created by people there are no images to back it up, so you really can't produce an image in your head of what the author is describing, the images that are in the book are mainly black and white and drawings which really didn't give me a sense of what the designer was trying to portray. As a designer I purchased this book to learn more about the art deco style, characteristics, elements, materials and influence, which is not what I found in this book.
The last book I'd let go of........2005-03-24
For those who are looking for a special purpose book, such as one that will instruct a person in design, or categorize items one may want to purchase by type (lamps, vases, statues, etc.), this may not be the ideal book. For the reader who is interested in exploring the deco spirit of original times and designers who viewed deco interiors as ensembles and not mere collections of items, this is an excellent book. As well bound as it is, I may eventually wear out my copy. It has been most useful to see original period interiors (ensembles, including the objects of which they are composed) from hotel lobbies, theatres, bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, restaurants, train stations, ocean liners, movie sets, offices, kitchens, and more, as I gather interpretive hints and inspiration for remodeling projects for each of the rooms in my house. I also browse through it sometimes just for the type of eye candy I never tire of. Photography is plentiful, and many photographs are nearly full-page in size. The writing is instructive related to history and designers, and well written. If I could keep only one art deco book - so far - this would be it.
Not what I needed.......2005-02-01
This book was more encyclopedic than inspiring. This would be great for a student of design. It was not helpful for me. I wanted to find decor and furnishing ideas for my unostentatious 1930's home. This book did not offer help to the interior design novice.
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