Customer Reviews

Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York

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Peiss begins her argument by explaining the relationship of industrial capitalism to wage labor in creating class-conscious leisure arenas, literally recalling Roy Rosenzweig's study. Peiss's distinction lies in "this conception of leisure did not develop historically in the same way for both sexes." (Peiss, 4). Sexual division ultimately shaped and confined women's leisure to their homes. Thus, the typical wage-earning females in pursuit of leisure were young and single. Their youth and marriage status turned their attentions from the leisurely pursuits of Rosenzweig's working men but to dance halls, amusement parks, and movie theatres.
The emerging youth-oriented forms of recreation could not be ignored by the commercial industry, which viewed female participation as lucrative. In addition, these commercialized forms of amusement fostered a heterosocial culture that eventually brought new meanings and restriction to same-sex gender friendships. Rather than stand by and chronicle these changes in leisure for working-class women, Peiss makes the bold argument that these women were actual agents in shaping the nature of their leisure, and Peiss proves again and again to be correct. Even more impressive is her claim that the majority of these women were immigrants or second-generation immigrants (Peiss, 56-88). In examining the actual amusements of working-class women--dance halls, excursions, amusement parks, and the movies, Peiss illustrates vividly how women had a place in the architecture of their own leisure.
It is Peiss's conclusion that women's suffrage and the growth of women in the public sphere "infectiously appealed to other middle-class women who were less politicized. Dancing sensual dances, attending cabarets and nightclubs, living as "bachelor girls" in apartment houses, these women expressed a new-found sense of freedom and possibility." (Peiss, 185). Interestingly, the phenomena of entertainment for working-class women eventually made its way to the middle-class, though the "cheap" amusements deliberately shed their vulgarity for the more formal tastes of the middle-class. Although the adventures of the single working-class woman often ceased with marriage, their new leisure pursuits would only grow with consumerism.

Peiss's work reveals in detail the social implications of young, middle class women's free time in turn-of-the century New York. Based on diaries and reports from the time, Peiss delivers with impact a convincing and highly interesting discussion on how just a few extra hours, a few days out of the week eroded American Victorianism. She writes with authority while keeping her writing very readable.

In her book, GILDED CITY, M.H. Dunlop chronicled the execesses and outrages of upper class New Yorkers (especially the women of the uppermost uppers) at the turn of the 20th century. While hiding behind the facade that the lavish parties and balls they threw and the exorbitant clothes they had tailored for themselves were giving jobs to the lower classes, their effect was to shamelessly display their wealth and, ultimately, enrage a lower class that was finding the economy and job market less and less bearable. Peiss' style is scholarly yet without the distancing effect that that form of writing usually exhibits in less skilled hands. Her knowledge and passion for the subject are easily identifiable in this wonderful book.

Kathy Peiss' CHEAP AMUSEMENTS, for me, is the flipside of the situation. The working women of New York, especially immigrant women, needed some way to spend what little leisure time they had with the little discretionary spending they had. Rather than simply identifying the spots like some old guidebook, Peiss explores each type of simple pleasure ground available to the girls, and how and why they became so popular. On a second level, the book examines the social and sometimes political consequences of this class of working women--bachelorettes--and their spending habits.

New York City at the turn of the twentieth century was a landscape troubled by class and ethnic tension--there were mansions on Fifth Avenue and tenement houses of Italian, Irish, and German immigrants along the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York, Kathy Peiss analyzes working-class women's free time and leisure. She recounts how Victorian sexual mores and ethnic traditions that restricted women's presence in the public sphere were replaced by a commercialized culture with more modern entertainments: dance halls and clubs, early movie theaters, and summer resorts with amusement parks and shoreline hotels. Examining these social spaces as representative of gender relations, Peiss asserts that young working women viewed these free time pursuits as expressions of autonomy and excitement, but were also exploited by entrepreneurs of the entertainment industry and by men who perceived financial dependency.

The book does offer insight into the gendered nature of capitalist work patterns. The residual nineteenth-century domestic ideal clashed with women's increasing participation in the workforce, rendering their desire for leisure outside the home problematic to their parents. Ultimately Peiss' work succeeds in its depiction of working class leisure culture, reconstructing working women's attitudes toward living arrangements, fashion, romantic relationships, and elaborate kinship and social networks. To escape the Victorian constraints of their mothers' generation, these young wage-earners embraced a nascent entertainment culture of dance halls, amusement parks, and movies, which enforced sexual objectification even as it offered ostensible freedom. Peiss' New York is less a depiction of a bygone era than an explication of a time whose consumer attractions and dangers mirror our own. But while Peiss addresses the issue of cultural transmission, the work raises questions regarding geographical relationships that it does not answer. At several points, I was left asking: Were these pursuits typical of other regions or distinctive features of New York's cultural scene? Did these trends originate in New York, then spread throughout the nation?

Better and more interesting than you would think. Peiss delves into the leisure time of young, working women in the industrial age. Definately worth your time.

Cathy Peiss typed written work is a master piece. The inner worlds of the women immigrants are discussed in detail. The book focuses alot on the Jewish, Italian, Irish and Germanic Cycles of people who lived in New York. It explains how immigrant families spent their money on entertainment. You will see real live pictures of the past of commoner citizens. I recommend this book to all [Men AND WOMEN] who wants to know more about the commoner who lived in New York during that time.

I have given this book 1 out of 5 only because Amazon wouldn't let me give it 0 out of 5.
To save everyone out there money and time, here is a summary of the book.
Women in New York in the 1920's went to Dance Halls/Amusement Places and for walks and talked with other girls in the street depending on how much money they had.
There you go. I saved you $10 and a few hours.