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Review
* 'Ehrenreich is the kind of reporter who could be put down just about anywhere and always come up with revelations of the society around her, its people, their hopes and fears' Guardian
Scotland on Sunday
"Barbara Erenreich wants to affirm the value of ecstatic group
celebration...(a)reporter's nose for subject and information"
celebration...(a)reporter's nose for subject and information"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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
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
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
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.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A Good and Informative Read
8 July 2008
Format:Paperback
Good research comes from good questions. Barbara Ehrenreich's book is the result of two excellent questions that she writes are prompted by a sense of loss: "if ecstatic rituals and festivities were once so widespread, why is so little left of them today? If the `techniques' of ecstasy represent an important part of the human cultural heritage, why have we forgotten them, if indeed we have?"
Going chronologically from the stone age cave drawings where the collective experience of dancing and feasting was felt so important as to record it, Ehrenreich sweeps through to present times, to what she calls an age of spectacle and sports. Along the way, Ehrenreich tells you about anthropologists who in the beginning neglected dance altogether and psychologists who are still too busy studying only the depressed individual to take any notice of those of us who experience joy. She takes a long hard look at Calvinism through the immensely troubled life of John Bunyan and tracks the dance mania in the 13-15th century Europe that ended in a crackdown on bodily movement from both Church and State in the 16th century. Ehrenreich cleverly posits this crackdown could very well be linked to the European Depression in the 17th century and she cites evidence in the novels, poetry, and autobiographies of the times. She finds only sporadic outbreaks of collective joy in present times, one such episode emanating from the sixties culture.
Coming to this book as a dancer and knowing the joy of dance I interpret Ehrenreich's work as demonstrating the struggle that exists in the physical body when you dance. In other words, to move or not to move. In reference to society, the ability to dance and feast and move the boundaries of gender, ethnicity, and social position versus the habit of sitting still for fear of losing both self-control and social positioning.
Ehrenreich's examples are interesting, her connections are insightful, and the book is easy to read. If humans for so many years devoted so much time and energy to the pursuit of collective joy what threatens us from pursuing this experience now? She does answer her questions. You'll have to read the book to find out what they are.
Going chronologically from the stone age cave drawings where the collective experience of dancing and feasting was felt so important as to record it, Ehrenreich sweeps through to present times, to what she calls an age of spectacle and sports. Along the way, Ehrenreich tells you about anthropologists who in the beginning neglected dance altogether and psychologists who are still too busy studying only the depressed individual to take any notice of those of us who experience joy. She takes a long hard look at Calvinism through the immensely troubled life of John Bunyan and tracks the dance mania in the 13-15th century Europe that ended in a crackdown on bodily movement from both Church and State in the 16th century. Ehrenreich cleverly posits this crackdown could very well be linked to the European Depression in the 17th century and she cites evidence in the novels, poetry, and autobiographies of the times. She finds only sporadic outbreaks of collective joy in present times, one such episode emanating from the sixties culture.
Coming to this book as a dancer and knowing the joy of dance I interpret Ehrenreich's work as demonstrating the struggle that exists in the physical body when you dance. In other words, to move or not to move. In reference to society, the ability to dance and feast and move the boundaries of gender, ethnicity, and social position versus the habit of sitting still for fear of losing both self-control and social positioning.
Ehrenreich's examples are interesting, her connections are insightful, and the book is easy to read. If humans for so many years devoted so much time and energy to the pursuit of collective joy what threatens us from pursuing this experience now? She does answer her questions. You'll have to read the book to find out what they are.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Social repression explained
25 Aug 2008
Format:Paperback
This book explains how and why our western European culture (among others) systematically represses our natural human inclination to cut loose and enjoy ourselves, and why it is so important for our emotional and political well-being that we continue to do so! Very thorough in explanations and examples. I now see acts of community celebration, music and dance to be highly important demonstrations of our personal freedom and political rights.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Excellent book, Well Researched
22 Nov 2009
Format:Audio CD
I listened to the audio version of this book.
I found this book to be fascinating and stimulating. As a life-long Roman Catholic, I thought the earlier reviews that decry the author for her 'church bashing' and 'Stalin'-like approaches were rather unfair and unnecessarily ad hominem. The author clearly put a great deal of time and effort into this book (either that, or she has an amazing team of researchers working for her! ;-D). It was fascinating for me to listen as she wove disparate pieces of information into a beautiful tapestry about the history of collective ecstatic dance in the Western world. (These kinds of books are very difficult to write. If you haven't tried to write a book such as this, I would strongly invite you to do so ... you'll gain a new appreciation for authors such as Ehrenreich who make it look so easy.)
I picked this book up because I very appreciated the author's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. I appreciate the author because she is focusing on issues that, in my opinion, should deeply concern today's Christians, such as the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer.
As a mental health professional, I also found her discussion on depression and mental health issues to be very insightful.
The person who read the audio book did a wonderful job. I found her voice very easy to listen to. The only critique I would offer to the publisher is that I sometimes found it difficult to tell where a particular quote ended and where the text resumed (in several cases knowing where they quote ended made a significant different in understanding the text).
For people interested in historical Christianity, collective healing rituals, mental health, dance, martial arts, and other forms of physical movement, I would highly recommend this book.
I found this book to be fascinating and stimulating. As a life-long Roman Catholic, I thought the earlier reviews that decry the author for her 'church bashing' and 'Stalin'-like approaches were rather unfair and unnecessarily ad hominem. The author clearly put a great deal of time and effort into this book (either that, or she has an amazing team of researchers working for her! ;-D). It was fascinating for me to listen as she wove disparate pieces of information into a beautiful tapestry about the history of collective ecstatic dance in the Western world. (These kinds of books are very difficult to write. If you haven't tried to write a book such as this, I would strongly invite you to do so ... you'll gain a new appreciation for authors such as Ehrenreich who make it look so easy.)
I picked this book up because I very appreciated the author's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. I appreciate the author because she is focusing on issues that, in my opinion, should deeply concern today's Christians, such as the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer.
As a mental health professional, I also found her discussion on depression and mental health issues to be very insightful.
The person who read the audio book did a wonderful job. I found her voice very easy to listen to. The only critique I would offer to the publisher is that I sometimes found it difficult to tell where a particular quote ended and where the text resumed (in several cases knowing where they quote ended made a significant different in understanding the text).
For people interested in historical Christianity, collective healing rituals, mental health, dance, martial arts, and other forms of physical movement, I would highly recommend this book.
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