Dancing in the Streets
A History of Collective Joy
by Barbara Ehrenreich · first published 2006
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"Cultural historian Ehrenreich explores a human impulse that has been so effectively suppressed that we lack even a term for it: the desire for collective joy, historically expressed in ecstatic revels of feasting, costuming, and dancing. She uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. Although 16th-century Europeans viewed mass festivities as foreign and "savage," Ehrenreich shows that they were indigenous to the West, from the ancient Greeks to medieval Christianity. Ultimately, church officials drove the festivities into the streets, Protestants criminalized c
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If you liked Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed,"[0] you might like a few of her unrelated books as well. I highly recommend her "Dancing in the Streets,"[1] a 5,000 year history of the deadening of European culture (at Europeans' own hands, no less) that pairs nicely with Graeber's "Debt: The First 5,000"[2], a book of similar pacing, as well as a much…
on “Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots” ↗Couple of books on this theme: 1. Putnam's Bowling Alone cites sociological sources 2. Ehrenreich's Dancing in the Streets cited historical sources 3. Liming's Hanging Out cites autobiographical and literary sources.
on “Good genes are nice, but joy is better” ↗…believe this, read Naomi Klein's "This Changes Everything," and Peter Frase's "Four Futures." If you're daring enough, you can follow those with Nancy Isenberg's "White Trash," and Barbara Ehrenreich's "Dancing in the Streets" and "Witches, Midwives, & Nurses" for a deep look at how and how long we've been going wrong. If that all doesn't make you straight up suicidal (let alone quit maintaining your startup pyramid scheme),…
on “Carbon Removal Technologies” ↗…colorful adventure not without gravitas. If you're trying to gain non-fiction information, I would recommend Galeano's "Open Veins of Latin America," CrimethInc's "No Wall They Can Build," or Ehrenreich's "Dancing in the Streets." In the realm of pure intellectual pursuit, Sacks' "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" will not disappoint.
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗Binging on Barbara Ehrenreich: Nickeled and Dimed, Dancing in the Streets, Natural Causes
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗