Body And Soul: The Making Of American Modernism: Art, Music And Letters In The Jazz Age 1919-1926 [Hardcover]

Robert Crunden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 2000

In this book Robert Crunden puts the “jazz” back in Jazz Age. Jazz was America’s greatest contribution to the Modernist movement, yet it is much overlooked. When we hear the term “Jazz Age,” we conjure the ghosts of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Eliot, not of Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Ethel Waters, George Gershwin, and Duke Ellington. To correct this imbalance, Crunden re-introduces us to these musical luminaries who gave the era its name, while tracing the early history of jazz from New Orleans to Chicago to New York.While Crunden emphasizes music over literature and the visual arts, he never fails to trace the complex cross-currents of literature that passed between jazz musicians and their “Lost Generation” peers, a veritable pageant of the glittering personalities of the day—James Joyce, Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand, John Dos Passos, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This hefty, posthumous study is an ambitious, intensive look at a brief period of American culture, spanning the domains of visual art, literature and music. Following up the author's two previous volumes covering the century's early years, this book devotes chapters to the usual suspects with a smattering of lesser-knowns: photographers Paul Strand and Alfred Stieglitz; artists Charles Sheeler and Georgia O'Keeffe; writers Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway; composers Edgard Varese and George Antheil; and Theosophical architect Claude Bragdon. Most are biographical narratives using secondary sources to discuss how these creators evolved new kinds of artistic expression, while a final section, titled "The Varieties of Religious Experience," juxtaposes chapters on the spiritual attitudes of writers like Jean Toomer, Wallace Stevens and Lincoln Kirstein. As is natural with such a wide-ranging study, the author's expertise is not equal on all subjects. Crunden, who was a professor of American studies at the University of Texas at Austin until his death last March, sticks to solid sources for literature and art, but often goes awry on music, dismissing composers of the stature of Milhaud, Poulenc and Honegger as "three moderately gifted experimenters," to give one of the milder examples. Nevertheless, chapters on Little Review editor Margaret Anderson and novelist and journalist Carl Van Vechten stand out, demonstrating an open-mindedness on the contributions of minorities in gender, sexuality and race to modernist art. But the book as a whole lacks the kind of strong, primary source-based perspective needed to ground convincing conclusions about modernism among the various art forms. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In American Salons (1992) and Ministers of Reform (1994), American studies professor Crunden traced major shifts in U.S. culture by exploring the trajectories of individuals' lives. In this posthumously published study of the early years of the Jazz Age, he applies a similar approach to modernism. The essays in section 1 make the case that Paris was not central to the U.S. Jazz Age. After an introduction on Paul Rosenfeld, Crunden considers Edgard Varese, Paul Strand, John Dos Passos, William Carlos Williams, and Charles Sheeler. Section 2 views jazz as "an American folklore," following it from New Orleans to Chicago to New York and examining the "bleaching" the blues received as it was taken up by whites. Section 3 covers generational differences within modernism, with essays on Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe, Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Hemingway, Igor Stravinsky, and George Antheil. Section 4 considers the kinds of religious experience that animated modernists Jean Toomer, Wallace Stevens, Arthur Dove, Claude Bragdon, and Margaret Anderson. Fascinating cultural history. Mary Carroll

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; First edition (March 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465014844
• ISBN-13: 978-0465014842
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,917,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good reading!, March 26, 2000

By 

Michael J Woznicki "Michael J Woznicki" (Holland, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Body And Soul: The Making Of American Modernism: Art, Music And Letters In The Jazz Age 1919-1926 (Hardcover)

When you think about American History the one era that seems to have the most romantic and most appeal is the "roaring 20's". When we think about the 20's we think of things like Prohibition and bootleg liquor. Rise of the American Gangster was a big part of the culture.

What if that was only a small part, what if people like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were the essence of the American cultural transition in what has become known as the age of jazz. According to Crunden these men and others made a more significant impact on society than they are given credit for.

Throughout the book Crunden shows that modern jazz got it start from the black musicians of the day. Even more impressive is the compelling argument that Crunden puts forth. Crunden also gives you a glimpse into the different angle on the race relations of the day.

From beginning to end the book covers what has to be considered one of the most important historical periods of our time. Crunden shows the how the rise of the musician throughout the decade, the cultural changes, the social class differences and the artists themselves make the 20's an exciting time to be alive.