Burton W. Peretti's Books

Nightclub City

Politics and Amusement in Manhattan

By: Burton W. Peretti

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Nightclub City

Politics and Amusement in Manhattan

By: Burton W. Peretti

In the Roaring Twenties, New York City nightclubs and speakeasies became hot spots where traditions were flouted and modernity was forged. With powerful patrons in Tammany Hall and a growing customer base, nightclubs flourished in spite of the efforts of civic-minded reformers and federal Prohibition enforcement. This encounter between clubs and government-generated scandals, reform crusades, and regulations helped to redefine the image and reality of urban life in the United States. Ultimately, it took the Great Depression to cool Manhattan's Jazz Age nightclubs, forcing them to adapt and relocate, but not before they left their mark on the future of American leisure. Nightclub City explores the cultural significance of New York City's nightlife between the wars, from Texas Guinan's notorious 300 Club to Billy Rose's nostalgic Diamond Horseshoe. Whether in Harlem, Midtown, or Greenwich Village, raucous nightclub activity tested early twentieth-century social boundaries. Anglo-Saxon novelty seekers, Eastern European impresarios, and African American performers crossed ethnic lines while provocative comediennes and scantily clad chorus dancers challenged and reshaped notions of femininity. These havens of liberated sexuality, as well as prostitution and illicit liquor consumption, allowed their denizens to explore their fantasies and fears of change. The reactions of cultural critics, federal investigators, and reformers such as Fiorello La Guardia exemplify the tension between leisure and order. Peretti's research delves into the symbiotic relationships among urban politicians, social reformers, and the business of vice. Illustrated with archival photographs of the clubs and the characters who frequented them, Nightclub City is a dark and dazzling study of New York's bygone nightlife.

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Page Count

304

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812203364

ISBN 13

9780812203363

Jazz in American Culture

By: Burton W. Peretti

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Jazz in American Culture

By: Burton W. Peretti

This history of jazz, spanning the twentieth century, is the first to place it within the broad context of American culture. Burton Peretti argues persuasively that this distinctive American music has been a key thread in the tapestry of the nation’s culture. The music itself, its players and its audience, and the critical debates it has prompted, tell us much about changes in American life since 1910. Mr. Peretti traces the emergence of jazz out of ragtime during a time of tumultuous growth of cites and industries. In the 1920s jazz flourished and symbolized the cultural struggle between modernists and traditionalists. As American sought reassurance and self-esteem during the Great Depression, jazz reached new levels of sophistication in the Swing Era. World War II encouraged rapid changes in popular tastes, and in the postwar decades jazz became both a voice of a globally dominant America and an avant-garde music reflecting social and political turmoil. Today, Mr. Peretti concludes, jazz symbolizes important cultural trends and enjoys a new prestige in a complex musical scene. Jazz in American Culture tells a peculiarly American story, evaluating the music as well as those who created it, and opening new perspectives on our cultural history.

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Page Count

209

Publisher

Ivan R. Dee

Published Date

ISBN 10

1461713048

ISBN 13

9781461713043

The Leading Man

Hollywood and the Presidential Image

By: Burton W. Peretti

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The Leading Man

Hollywood and the Presidential Image

By: Burton W. Peretti

American presidents and Hollywood have interacted since the 1920s. This relationship has made our entertainment more political and our political leadership more aligned with the world of movies and movie stars. In The Leading Man, Burton W. Peretti explores the development of the cinematic presidential image. He sets the scene in chapter 1 to show us how the chief executive, beginning with George Washington, was positioned to assume the mantle of cultural leading man. As an early star figure in the young republic, the president served as a symbol of national survival and wish fulfillment. The president, as head of government and head of state, had the potential to portray a powerful and charismatic role. At the center of the story are the fourteen presidents of the cinematic era, from Herbert Hoover to Barack Obama. Since the 1920s, the president, like the lead actor in a movie, has been given the central place on the political stage under the intense glare of the spotlight. Like other American men, future presidents were taught by lead movie actors how to look and behave, what to say, and how to say it. Some, like John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, took particular care to learn from the grooming, gestures, movements, and vocal inflections of film actors and applied these lessons to their political careers. Ronald Reagan was a professional actor. Bill Clinton, a child of the post–World War II Baby Boom, may have been the biggest movie fan of all presidents. Others, including Lyndon Johnson, showed little interest in movies and their lessons for politicians. Presidents and other politicians have been criticized for cheapening their offices by hiring image and advertising consultants and staging their public events. Peretti analyzes the evolution and the significance of this interaction to trace the convoluted history of the presidential cinematic image. He demonstrates how movies have been the main force in promoting appearance and drama over the substance of governing, and how Americans’ lives today may be dominated by entertainment at the expense of their engagement as citizens.

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Page Count

351

Publisher

Rutgers University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813554055

ISBN 13

9780813554051

Nightclub City

Politics and Amusement in Manhattan

By: Burton W. Peretti

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Nightclub City

Politics and Amusement in Manhattan

By: Burton W. Peretti

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Page Count

304

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812203364

ISBN 13

9780812203363

Lift Every Voice

The History of African American Music

By: Burton William Peretti,Jacqueline M Moore,Nina Mjagkij

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Lift Every Voice

The History of African American Music

By: Burton William Peretti,Jacqueline M Moore,Nina Mjagkij

Looks at the history of African American music from its roots in Africa and slavery to the present day and examines its place within African American communities and the nation as a whole.

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Page Count

241

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0742558118

ISBN 13

9780742558113

Jazz in American Culture

By: Burton W. Peretti

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Jazz in American Culture

By: Burton W. Peretti

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209

Publisher

Ivan R. Dee

Published Date

ISBN 10

1461713048

ISBN 13

9781461713043

The Creation of Jazz

Music, Race, and Culture in Urban America

By: Burton William Peretti

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The Creation of Jazz

Music, Race, and Culture in Urban America

By: Burton William Peretti

As musicians, listeners, and scholars have sensed for many years, the story of jazz is more than a history of the music. Burton Peretti presents a fascinating account of how the racial and cultural dynamics of American cities created the music, life, and business that was jazz. From its origins in the jook joints of sharecroppers and the streets and dance halls of 1890s New Orleans, through its later metamorphoses in the cities of the North, Peretti charts the life of jazz culture to the eve of bebop and World War II. In the course of those fifty years, jazz was the story of players who made the transition from childhood spasm bands to Carnegie Hall and worldwide touring and fame. It became the music of the Twenties, a decade of Prohibition, of adolescent discontent, of Harlem pride, and of Americans hoping to preserve cultural traditions in an urban, commercial age. And jazz was where black and white musicians performed together, as uneasy partners, in the big bands of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. "Blacks fought back by using jazz", states Peretti, "with its unique cultural and intellectual properties, to prove, assess, and evade the "dynamic of minstrelsy". Drawing on newspaper reports of the times and on the firsthand testimony of more than seventy prominent musicians and singers (among them Benny Carter, Bud Freeman, Kid Ory, and Mary Lou Williams), The Creation of Jazz is the first comprehensive analysis of the role of early jazz in American social history.

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Page Count

326

Publisher

University of Illinois Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0252064216

ISBN 13

9780252064210

The Leading Man

Hollywood and the Presidential Image

By: Burton W. Peretti

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The Leading Man

Hollywood and the Presidential Image

By: Burton W. Peretti

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

351

Publisher

Rutgers University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813554055

ISBN 13

9780813554051

Book's by Burton W. Peretti

Nightclub City

Nightclub City

Jazz in American Culture

Jazz in American Culture

The Leading Man

The Leading Man

Nightclub City

Nightclub City

Lift Every Voice

Lift Every Voice

Jazz in American Culture

Jazz in American Culture

The Creation of Jazz

The Creation of Jazz

The Leading Man

The Leading Man

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