When Harlem Was in Vogue [Paperback]

David Levering Lewis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0140263349 | ISBN-13: 978-0140263343 | Publication Date: June 1, 1997

Stretching from the close of World War I to immediately after the Depression, the Harlem Renaissance was a time of glorious artistic freedom and intellectual collaboration between black artists and white bohemians of Greenwich village. In his masterful and fascinating study of this era, Lewis takes a daring look at what was considered to be a successful utopian effort at assimilating and validating black culture in white America.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

"Lewis summons back the spirit and substance of New York City's black center during its best years," said LJ's reviewer (LJ 3/15/81). The author traces the history of blacks in Harlem from 1905, when they began moving uptown, to the riot of 1935. Another natural for Black History Month, this "gem of a book" remains "highly recommended."
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A masterly book, it is the most unusual and authoritative work on the art and politics of the Harlem renaissance era. This volume is in the Lewis sytle: elegant prose based upon solid and voluminous research."--Kenneth R. Janken, University of North Carolina

"This book is a thoroughly documented text that is an excellent reference text for students studying any of the literary, social, economic, political or intellectual aspects of the Harlem Renaissance period in Black culture."--Dr. Pearlie Peters,Rider College

"It was an extremely well-written, informative, and exciting book. I highly recommend its use for courses on the Harlem Renaissance, or upon Afro-American history in general."--Richard Berkley, New York Univ.

"A major study...one that thoroughly interweaves the philosophies and fads, the people and movements that combined to give a small segment of Afro-America a brief place in the sun."--Jim Haskins, The New York Times Book Review

"A brilliant work....As an interpretation of one of America's major eras, it should be indispensable for the student of America's 1920s and exciting for any reader."--Darwin T. Turner, The Washington Post Book World

"[Lewis'] courageously brilliant, often witty, and beautifully clear book will become definitive for at least fifty years."--Choice

"From the social forums to the street-corner radicals, the the jazz clubs, and the white visitors, Lewis leaves a stirring impression....A gem of a book."--Library Journal

"In this thorough, penetrating study, [Lewis] examines not only the glittery surface of 'Afro-America's Paris'--the parties and cabarets that sent whites uptown in search of 'the exotic and forbidden'--but also the complex mix of people and circumstances that fostered extraordinary black achievements in writing, music, and art."--Publishers Weekly

"Lewis's book brings [Harlem's] past alive again."--The Smithsonian

"A brilliant socio-historical study that recaptures the verve and magic of those fascinating years."--Arthur P. Davis, Howard University

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140263349
• ISBN-13: 978-0140263343
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely exciting history of Harlem's culture - 1890-1935., July 5, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: When Harlem Was in Vogue (Paperback)

Beyond the speakeasys, definitive cabarets and birth of contemporary black America based in Harlem, Mr. Lewis has given us a poignant and hard-hitting study that pitifully few whites and most contemporary blacks know about. My God! The story of the 369th Infantry Regiment marching up 5th Avenue raised the hair on my arms. The poets, playwrights, noveslists of the period are still a volatile inspiration today.The roots, "why's" and "who's" of Marxism, Garveyism and "how" they made sense as movements became clear for the first time. This piece of work is a must read for anyone who considers themselves knowledgable about culture of any race in this country. We carry a shameful legacy of mistreatment of ourselves and our brothers, and the thrust of the first Harlem Rennaisance (1920-35) was that art,(literature and the arts) could influence politics and the government in this country to make them more humane and less extreme, whether left or right. The Rennaisance didn't work as effectively as anyone had hoped, but the results of the cultural struggle, as real as the physical struggles, are coming to fruition over the last 60 years. Now maybe the fruit is ripe enough to share between us all. Lewis offers a banquet of information, stories, names, dates and situations that made me wish I could have been a part of the magnificent movements he has so elegantly documented. There was a world before TV and the internet - a world where people had dialogues, exchanged impassioned thoughts and attitudes as a lifestyle, and shared bared Souls in the hope of expanding their minds and freeing a race from the most insulting racial intolerances. To read this book is to be a part of the struggle and to have the opportunity to commit to the ever expanding culture lost to so many generations. Somehow I guess the poetry of Claude McKay could be the root of Hip Hop. Would he approve, and would the current generation appreciate the perspective? Time will tell

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A zesty account, February 21, 2004

By 

Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: When Harlem Was in Vogue (Paperback)

Claude McKay and Jean Toomer helped to launch the Harlem Renaissance and chose to live elsewhere. Sterling Brown denied that a Harlem Renaissance had ever existed. It began as a somewhat forced phenomenon.

DuBois believed the history of the world was the history of groups. War experiences spurred people to seek decisive change. Unfortunately a number of racial incidents took place directly after Word War I. The historian Carter Woodson was witness to a riot in Washington D.C.

Black Harlem ran from 130th to 145th Streets. Jazz and blues in Harlem were produced by persons from the Great Migration--Mamie Smith, Perry Bradford, and others. There were new stars in Harlem. Claude McKay and James Weldon Johnson became personal friends. MacKay's HARLEM SHADOWS appeared in 1922. Countee Cullen said that on the whole he liked CANE by Jean Toomer. Countee Cullen's only serious rival in Harlem was Langston Hughes.

Alain Locke and Charles Johnson, a sociologist, made contributions to the intellectual life of the Harlem leadership. Arna Bontemps and Zora Neale Thurston were also notable figures. Many motives animated the Lost Generation Caucasian supporters. The motives included guilt, Christianity, inherited abolitionism.

There were rent parties in Harlem and other evidence of stress and overcrowding. Nonetheless the twenties was a time of artistic triumph with such musical personalities James P. Johnson, Willie the Lion Smith, Fats Waller, and Duke Ellington seeking and finding engagements. There were success stories. Even in the Depression people were generally well-dressed and happy. Harlem was filled with strivers and professionals.

1925 was year one of the Harlem Renaissance. James Weldon Johnson's ancestors had been free, literate, and prosperous before the Civil War. He and his brother composed an opera. The mid twenties solidified the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem was Afro-America's Paris. LULU BELLE (1926) sent whites to Harlem in unprecedented numbers. Factually speaking, though, most of Harlem was sober and hardworking.

The Rosenwald Fund and the Harmon Fund were influential by promoting and rewarding African American artistic achievement. Alain Locke had been a sort of custodian of the Harlem Renaissance. Claude McKay's last novel appeared in 1933. Sugar Hill, Strivers' Row and the Dunbar were landmarks of the Renaissance. The last novel of the Renaissance was Zora Neale Thurston's JONAH'S GOURD VINE.

The book covers other topics interestingly, revealing many bits of information previously unknown to this reader. Photographs are included and an appendix of sources.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Roaring Twenties- a culturally vital era, January 5, 2005

By 

Katherine Wylie (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Harlem Was in Vogue (Paperback)

Harlem's gaudiest and best-known nightspot was a "whites only" nightclub serving Vaudevillian-style black entertainment to the white patrons that flooded into Harlem from downtown Manhattan. Everybody was swinging and boozing. They were high times and they were really hopping. Alcohol sales and consumption climbed rapidly. Nightclubs, cabarets and after-hours clubs, on the strip of 133rd Street between Lenox and Seventh Avenues, thrived with the influx of white trade. Jazz, big bands, blues, and high-steppin', "high-yeller" girls set the tone. Money flowed in like water and the Mob's power grew. In the midst of all that was occurring, black artists, intellectuals and social activists flourished throughout Harlem in what is now called The Harlem Renaissance. Very well researched vital to learning about the richness of American life and character