First published 2007
Tracing the suppressed human impulse for communal celebration, cultural historian Barbara Ehrenreich unearths a forgotten history of feasting, costuming, and dancing. From ancient Greece to medieval Christianity, mass festivities once flourished in the West—until church officials banished them to the streets. Protestants criminalized carnival, colonizers wiped out native dance rites, and elites feared the social upheaval of these ecstatic revels. Yet the festive tradition persisted, fueling uprisings and revolutions across Europe, the Caribbean, and the American plains. Ehrenreich shows how the desire for collective joy lives on, from the 1960s rock rebellion to the "carnivalization" of modern sports.
Genres: history, non-fiction, social-movements, cultural-studies
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: forgotten-history, social-change
336 pages · Paperback · Holt Paperbacks