Reviews
"The strength of this book is its truly interdisciplinary quality. The breadth of detail, the facility of its application and expression, the suppleness and tact of the argument are all exemplary. It will be useful to everyone interested in racial interaction in the U.S. and it will be on reading lists for courses on U.S. modern culture as well as jazz history."--W. T. Lhamon, Jr., author of Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop "More than any other study I've read, Dinerstein's book gets to the heart of why the 1930s and 1940s have been designated as the Swing Era. Yet the author traces concern over 'the tempo of life' well back into the nineteenth century through the writings of Whitman and Melville and mythic figures like John Henry. The depth and breadth of research is impressive and the writing is superb. I don't recall a word of jargon-an unusual distinction for cutting-edge work in cultural studies."--David W. Stowe, author of Swing Changes: Big Band Jazz in New Deal America "Damn, I love this book! Dinerstein writes about the interplay between aesthetic principles and social conditions with as much insight and grace as anyone ever has. Rattling machines and musical rhythms, chorus lines and assembly lines, industrial landscapes and racialized bodyscapes, mechanical motion and the flow or chug of dancing bodies--Dinerstein brings these together in original, compelling, and always illuminating ways. Swinging the Machine remaps the social and political meanings of swing, the fully national resonance of African American cultural forms, modernity and anti-modernism, and a good deal else besides. A brilliant and beautiful book."--Matthew Frye Jacobson, author of Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race "In one elegantly written, well-researched, and delicately argued project, Dinerstein has produced a magnificent interdisciplinary cultural history that is a must-read for both graduate students and advanced undergrads in a variety of related fields, including U.S. cultural history, African American history and culture, history of technology, and the history of both popular music and dance."--American Quarterly, In one elegantly written, well-researched, and delicately argued project, Dinerstein has produced a magnificent interdisciplinary cultural history that is a must-read for both graduate students and advanced undergrads in a variety of related fields, including U.S. cultural history, African American history and culture, history of technology, and the history of both popular music and dance., "The strength of this book is its truly interdisciplinary quality. The breadth of detail, the facility of its application and expression, the suppleness and tact of the argument are all exemplary. It will be useful to everyone interested in racial interaction in the U.S. and it will be on reading lists for courses on U.S. modern culture as well as jazz history."--W. T. Lhamon, Jr., author of Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop"More than any other study I've read, Dinerstein's book gets to the heart of why the 1930s and 1940s have been designated as the Swing Era. Yet the author traces concern over 'the tempo of life' well back into the nineteenth century through the writings of Whitman and Melville and mythic figures like John Henry. The depth and breadth of research is impressive and the writing is superb. I don't recall a word of jargon-an unusual distinction for cutting-edge work in cultural studies."--David W. Stowe, author of Swing Changes: Big Band Jazz in New Deal America"Damn, I love this book! Dinerstein writes about the interplay between aesthetic principles and social conditions with as much insight and grace as anyone ever has. Rattling machines and musical rhythms, chorus lines and assembly lines, industrial landscapes and racialized bodyscapes, mechanical motion and the flow or chug of dancing bodies--Dinerstein brings these together in original, compelling, and always illuminating ways. Swinging the Machine remaps the social and political meanings of swing, the fully national resonance of African American cultural forms, modernity and anti-modernism, and a good deal else besides. A brilliant and beautiful book."--Matthew Frye Jacobson, author of Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race"In one elegantly written, well-researched, and delicately argued project, Dinerstein has produced a magnificent interdisciplinary cultural history that is a must-read for both graduate students and advanced undergrads in a variety of related fields, including U.S. cultural history, African American history and culture, history of technology, and the history of both popular music and dance."--American Quarterly, Damn, I love this book! Dinerstein writes about the interplay between aesthetic principles and social conditions with as much insight and grace as anyone ever has. Rattling machines and musical rhythms, chorus lines and assembly lines, industrial landscapes and racialized bodyscapes, mechanical motion and the flow or chug of dancing bodies -- Dinerstein brings these together in original, compelling, and always illuminating ways. Swinging the Machine remaps the social and political meanings of swing, the fully national resonance of African American cultural forms, modernity and anti-modernism, and a good deal else besides. A brilliant and beautiful book., "The strength of this book is its truly interdisciplinary quality. The breadth of detail, the facility of its application and expression, the suppleness and tact of the argument are all exemplary. It will be useful to everyone interested in racial interaction in the U.S. and it will be on reading lists for courses on U.S. modern culture as well as jazz history."--W. T. Lhamon, Jr., author of Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop "More than any other study I've read, Dinerstein's book gets to the heart of why the 1930s and 1940s have been designated as the Swing Era. Yet the author traces concern over 'the tempo of life' well back into the nineteenth century through the writings of Whitman and Melville and mythic figures like John Henry. The depth and breadth of research is impressive and the writing is superb. I don't recall a word of jargon-an unusual distinction for cutting-edge work in cultural studies."--David W. Stowe, author of Swing Changes: Big Band Jazz in New Deal America "Damn, I love this book! Dinerstein writes about the interplay between aesthetic principles and social conditions with as much insight and grace as anyone ever has. Rattling machines and musical rhythms, chorus lines and assembly lines, industrial landscapes and racialized bodyscapes, mechanical motion and the flow or chug of dancing bodies--Dinerstein brings these together in original, compelling, and always illuminating ways. Swinging the Machine remaps the social and political meanings of swing, the fully national resonance of African American cultural forms, modernity and anti-modernism, and a good deal else besides. A brilliant and beautiful book."--Matthew Frye Jacobson, author of Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race "In one elegantly written, well-researched, and delicately argued project, Dinerstein has produced a magnificent interdisciplinary cultural history that is a must-read for both graduate students and advanced undergrads in a variety of related fields, including U.S. cultural history, African American history and culture, history of technology, and the history of both popular music and dance."-- American Quarterly
