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Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy Paperback – 5 May 2008

by Barbara Ehrenreich (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars 11 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Granta Books (5 May 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1847080081
  • ISBN-13: 978-1847080080
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2.3 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 162,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

[A] thought provoking and sober look at a delightfully unsober topic.
-- London Review of Books

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5.0 out of 5 starsOn Collective Ecstasy
By S Wood on 2 Mar. 2010
Format: Paperback
Starting back at the dawn of time and bringing the reader up to the present, Barbara Ehrenreich charts the history of collective joy in her recently published book "Dancing in the Streets". The book itself isn't one that's easy to pigeon-hole, in part a work of synthesis, it brings into close focus those fragments of information we have from the past that relate to her subject matter. It also reflects, and speculates on, the expressions of collective joy and ecstatic rituals which are broadly defined as festivals, carnivals, holidays and fairs in which the participants actually participate, as opposed to spectacles of where one just gawps and which reached their hellish epitome with the Nazi rallies of the 1930's.

The earlier section of the book which deal with the pre-historic times are necessarily speculative, one activity that appears frequently in cave paintings would appear to be groups of early men and women dancing. Moving onto the ancient world of the Greeks and Romans Ehrenreich has a greater amount of evidence available and looks at the differences between Roman and Greek (and others) attitudes to collective joy. Her reading of Euripides Bacchae reveals an early example of the tension between the rulers and the ruled with regard to over exuberant festivities. In this case the King is torn to pieces during the annual festival in the Greek world where women ran riot, danced, hunted animals with their bare hands and ate them raw. The King was mistaken for a lion.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsJoy versus depression in western culture
By Angus Bell on 16 May 2008
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This is an interesting take on the rise of misery in western culture - the thesis being that it has been the gradual suppression of all outlets to communal celebration that has led to xs individualism and great misery.
The descriptions of the changes in church culture and the place of organised religion as part of communal ecstacy is interesting as is the parallels with older pagan customs and modern night club culture.
A good read but the well researched but simple idea runs out of steam a bit at the end and depression has many more sociocultural roots than the lack of communal ecstacy - eg the breakdown of the family and the increasing divide between rich and poor
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5.0 out of 5 starsWhere's the Rave?
By Dancing Bob on 13 Oct. 2008
Format: Paperback
As someone interested in sociology, and ecstatic dance, I found this very interesting indeed. The writing style is easy to read, although it seems well-researched too. However, the emphasis is on the 'history', and there is nothing about present-day ecstatic dance practices. No mention of the rave movement even - didn't it impact the USA at all? No mention at all of the existence of current trance dance or circle dance culture - or was that dismissed with the reference to 'doped-up hippies'? Perhaps this is because the book focusses on the mainstream, so instead we get a chapter on the 'Carnivalization of Sport', as the author suggests that this is the new cultural expression for communal feeling. She's probably right ... her arguments are convincing that jumping up and down and shouting and singing at football matches is the re-emergent expression of Dionysian desires. I guess a lot of the ancient 'dancing' wasn't much different, really.

This review sounds quite critical, but I do recommend the book.

Little things you say and do
Make them quite afraid of you
Dance is a crazy feelin'
Now you know it's got them reelin'
When you dance then they fear you, rave on
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5.0 out of 5 starsLife-affirming prose about a weird and wonderful subject
By William Cohen VINE VOICE on 13 Jan. 2009
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I have always been drawn to the thrill of communitas or collective effervescence. Although I had never been able to articulate exactly what I was in pursuit of. For over two years I have been salsa dancing, and I love the warm-up and the group dancing. I had felt guilty about it, because, the only analogy I could make was with a Nuremberg rally. The ecstasy of losing myself as a rippling multi-legged beast seemed illicit and dangerous.

Ehrenreich puts the feeling into context. Collective joy has a great tradition, until the politicians and the clergy got involved and declared the pastime sinful and corrupting. I can now understand why dance brings me so much satisfaction. I renounced politics and the church for dance, and I'm delighted that Ehrenreich would thoroughly approve of my choices. In fact, judging what it says in the book, God probably would, too.
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4.0 out of 5 starsThe importance of being ecstatic
By Victor Smart on 22 April 2007
Format: Hardcover
Dancing in the Streets is a manifesto for collective joy, or more specifically the open displays of public ecstasy which Ehrenreich claims spark and sustain it. At the same time she holds that we Europeans have been hostage to a sort of collective low spirits for three or four centuries. Hence this is simultaneoulsy both uplifting and a miserabilist tract. Bristling with footnotes and references to everyone from Jesus to Bunyan, (and taking in Robespierre and Bo Diddley en route), this is a book that pretends to academic seriousness. But it is redeemed by a bustle of intriguing and colourful historical details. Orgiastic gatherings in the Ancient World, the origin of the Mexican wave at Eighties' football matches - and the successful struggle of African slaves to keep ecstatic elements of their culture alive - are all here. Ultimately the thesis that a dearth of public revels lies at the roots of western societies ills may not convince many, but this is an engaging, enlightening book which carries you along despite yourself.
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