Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy

Author(s): Barbara Ehrenreich

Society & Culture

Ehrenreich uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. She discovers that the same elements come up in every human culture throughout history: a love of masking, carnival, music-making and dance. Although sixteenth-century Europeans began to view mass festivities as foreign and 'savage', Ehrenreich shows that they were indigenous to the West, from the ancient Greek's worship of Dionysus to the medieval practices of Christianity as a 'danced religion'. Exhilarating in its scholarly range, humane, witty and impassioned, "Dancing in the Streets" will generate debate and soul searching.


Product Information

'Witty and quizzical - Her lightness of touch is commendable' Simon Callow, Guardian 'Dancing in the Streets is a genuine triumph of popular critical scholarship - the punchy elegance of her prose makes this an essential purchase' Independent

Barbara Ehrenreich writes regularly for Time, Harpers, The New York Times Magazine and various British newspapers including The Times and the Guardian. She is the author of fourteen books, including the bestselling Nickel and Dimed, Bait and Switch, and, most recently, Dancing in the Streets. . She lives in New Rochelle, New York.

General Fields

  • : 9781847080080
  • : Granta Books
  • : Granta Books
  • : May 2008
  • : United Kingdom
  • : April 2011
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Barbara Ehrenreich
  • : Paperback
  • : 708
  • : English
  • : 394.26
  • : 240
  • : JHBT