The March Of Spare Time: The Problem And Promise Of Leisure In The Great Depression - Couverture rigide

Currell, Susan

 
9780812238594: The March Of Spare Time: The Problem And Promise Of Leisure In The Great Depression
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0812238591 ISBN 13 : 9780812238594
Editeur : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005

Synopsis

In The March of Spare Time, Susan Currell explores how and why leisure became an object of such intense interest, concern, and surveillance during the Great Depression. As Americans experienced record high levels of unemployment, leisure was thought by reformers, policy makers, social scientists, physicians, labor unions, and even artists to be both a cause of and a solution to society's most entrenched ills. Of all the problems that faced America in the 1930s, only leisure seemed to offer a panacea for the rest.

The problem centered on divided opinions over what constituted proper versus improper use of leisure time. On the one hand, sociologists and reformers excoriated as improper such leisure activities as gambling, loafing, and drinking. On the other, the Works Progress Administration and the newly professionalized recreation experts promoted proper leisure activities such as reading, sports, and arts and crafts. Such attention gave rise to new ideas about how Americans should spend their free time to better themselves and their nation.

These ideas were propagated in social science publications and proliferated into the wider cultural sphere. Films, fiction, and radio also engaged with new ideas about leisure, more extensively than has previously been recognized. In examining this wide spectrum of opinion, Currell offers the first full-scale account of the fears and hopes surrounding leisure in the 1930s, one that will be an important addition to the cultural history of the period.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l?auteur

Susan Currell is Senior Lecturer in American Literature at the University of Sussex.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
University of Pennsylvania Press
Date d'édition
2005
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0812238591
ISBN 13 
9780812238594
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
248
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780812221251: The March of Spare Time: The Problem and Promise of Leisure in the Great Depression

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0812221257 ISBN 13 :  9780812221251
Editeur : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010
Couverture souple