Synopses & Reviews
This is the story of English Country Dance, from its 18th century roots in the English cities and countryside, to its transatlantic leap to the U.S. in the 20th century, told by not only a renowned historian but also a folk dancer, who has both immersed himself in the rich history of the folk tradition and rehearsed its steps.
In City Folk, Daniel J. Walkowitz argues that the history of country and folk dancing in America is deeply intermeshed with that of political liberalism and the ‘old left. He situates folk dancing within surprisingly diverse contexts, from progressive era reform, and playground and school movements, to the changes in consumer culture, and the project of a modernizing, cosmopolitan middle class society.
Tracing the spread of folk dancing, with particular emphases on English Country Dance, International Folk Dance, and Contra, Walkowitz connects the history of folk dance to social and international political influences in America. Through archival research, oral histories, and ethnography of dance communities, City Folk allows dancers and dancing bodies to speak. From the norms of the first half of the century, marked strongly by Anglo-Saxon traditions, to the Cold War nationalism of the post-war era, and finally on to the counterculture movements of the 1970s, City Folk injects the riveting history of folk dance in the middle of the story of modern America.
Review
“Walkowitz brings the joy of a dancer together with the analytical acuity of a scholar to create a fascinating picture of how English Country Dance reflected the shifting terrain of twentieth-century liberalism. City Folk is a model study of culture and politics.”
-Lizabeth Cohen,author of A Consumers Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America
Review
“City Folk brings matters of class, nation, and whiteness front and center, reframing the kinds of questions that can be fairly asked of English Country Dancing in the twentieth-century U.S. and Britain. Turning a keen eye on urban cohorts who embraced this dancing, Walkowitz provides a model for joining consideration of things political with things cultural—specifically with practices of the body—and for doing so across disciplinary divides.”
-Linda J. Tomko,University of California, Riverside
Review
"Walkowitz has drawn from a plethora of primary and secondary sources, and from his own experience, to produce a fascinating, wide-ranging history of English country dance in Great Britain and the US... The transatlantic approach is groundbreaking; no comparable studies exist. The book includes numerous illustrations, detailed endnotes, and a helpful bibliography. Summing Up: Highly Recommended." "New Yorker Daniel Walkowitz draws on his extensive knowledge and experience from the USA, but by the nature and origin of his subject matter, he has to consider England as well... He accepts that the scene in England is more varied, yet highlights an absence of teaching dance technique, a failure to train dance teachers, and the 'relatively thin' music. So, England, is this true? And if so, what are we going to do about it?"
“Walkowitz brings the joy of a dancer together with the analytical acuity of a scholar to create a fascinating picture of how English Country Dance reflected the shifting terrain of twentieth-century liberalism. City Folk is a model study of culture and politics.”
“Richly informative, conceptually exciting, and strikingly original. Walkowitz narrates the stories of compelling characters in the history of English Country Dance, particularly Cecil Sharp and the various figures, mostly women, with whom he dances through the complexities of organizing a movement in two countries. Walkowitz follows this story up to the present, combining analytic, ethnographic, and autobiographical reflections on the recent and contemporary folk dance scene. His authorial stance permits him to engage major questions about modern society, the middle class, and the role culture and cultures play in how people negotiate structural change over time. City Folk will be of interest to a diverse readership that stretches from general readers interested in folk dance and dancers and modern cultural history more broadly, to academic readers in fields including folklore, anthropology, performance, cultural studies, social history, and transatlantic perspectives.”
“City Folk brings matters of class, nation, and whiteness front and center, reframing the kinds of questions that can be fairly asked of English Country Dancing in the twentieth-century U.S. and Britain. Turning a keen eye on urban cohorts who embraced this dancing, Walkowitz provides a model for joining consideration of things political with things cultural—specifically with practices of the body—and for doing so across disciplinary divides.”
Review
“Walkowitz brings the joy of a dancer together with the analytical acuity of a scholar to create a fascinating picture of how English Country Dance reflected the shifting terrain of twentieth-century liberalism. City Folk is a model study of culture and politics.”
-Lizabeth Cohen,author of A Consumers Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America
Review
“Richly informative, conceptually exciting, and strikingly original. Walkowitz narrates the stories of compelling characters in the history of English Country Dance, particularly Cecil Sharp and the various figures, mostly women, with whom he dances through the complexities of organizing a movement in two countries. Walkowitz follows this story up to the present, combining analytic, ethnographic, and autobiographical reflections on the recent and contemporary folk dance scene. His authorial stance permits him to engage major questions about modern society, the middle class, and the role culture and cultures play in how people negotiate structural change over time. City Folk will be of interest to a diverse readership that stretches from general readers interested in folk dance and dancers and modern cultural history more broadly, to academic readers in fields including folklore, anthropology, performance, cultural studies, social history, and transatlantic perspectives.”
-Michael Frisch,University at Buffalo, State University of New York
Review
“City Folk brings matters of class, nation, and whiteness front and center, reframing the kinds of questions that can be fairly asked of English Country Dancing in the twentieth-century U.S. and Britain. Turning a keen eye on urban cohorts who embraced this dancing, Walkowitz provides a model for joining consideration of things political with things cultural—specifically with practices of the body—and for doing so across disciplinary divides.”
-Linda J. Tomko,University of California, Riverside
Synopsis
This book examines the connection between print and culture in the nineteenth century, identifying a neglected and important body of Victorian criticism.
Subjugated Knowledges explores the relations of certain forms of nineteenth-century printed texts to their modes of production and to each other, in their own time period and in ours.
Brake claims that there is a high degree of interdependence among literature, history, and journalism. She investigates the ways in which space is designated male or female as well as the way authorship is constructed in various forms of biography, including in such diverse forms as obituaries and dictionaries.
The book moves from a general mapping of the relations between literature and journalism and their respective formations to studies of individual textssuch as Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Woman's World, and the Dictionary of National Biography and of relations between (the construction of) authorship and publishing history.
The volume is comprised of three sections: Literature and Journalism, Gendered Space, and Biography and Authorship. The first section contains chapters on such diverse issues as the professionalization of critics, cultural formation of journals, new journalism, press censorship, and decadence. The second section discusses women's magazines of the 1880s and 90s, while the third examines debates in the press about biography.
About the Author
Daniel J. Walkowitz is Professor of History and Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. He is the author and editor of several books, most recently, Working With Class: Social Workers and the Politics of Middle Class Identity and Contested Histories in Public Space: Memory, Race, and Nation.