About this item
Cool. It was a new word and a new way to be, and in a single generation, it became the supreme compliment of American culture. The Origins of Cool in Postwar America uncovers the hidden history of this concept and its new set of codes that came to define a global attitude and style. As Joel Dinerstein reveals in this dynamic book, cool began as a stylish defiance of racism, a challenge to suppressed sexuality, a philosophy of individual rebellion, and a youthful search for social change. Through eye-opening portraits of iconic figures, Dinerstein illuminates the cultural connections and artistic innovations among Lester Young, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Jack Kerouac, Albert Camus, Marlon Brando, and James Dean, among others.
About the Author
Joel Dinerstein is a cultural historian and professor of English/American Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans. He is the author of Jazz: A Quick Immersion (2020) , The Origins of Cool in Postwar America (Chicago 2017) , American Cool (Prestel 2014) , Swinging the Machine (2003) , and Coach: A Story of NY Cool (Rizzoli 2016) . He was the curator for the acclaimed exhibit American Cool (2014) at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC featuring 100 icons and 100 photographs. He has served as a consultant on jazz and popular music for the National Endowment for the Humanities (the NEH) , HBO (Boardwalk Empire) , and Putumayo Records (Jazz CD) . His first book was an award-winning cultural history of jazz and industrialization, Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and African-American Culture (2003) . He gave a Tedx Talk on the history of cool in 2015 through the iconic figures of Miles Davis, Dylan, Elvis, Patti Smith, Prince, and Johnny Cash.Dinerstein holds a Ph.D in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Born and raised in pre-hipster Brooklyn (NY) , he graduated from the University of Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo) and Erasmus Hall High School. http://www.joeldinerstein.com/
