Bands were playing, people were dancing, the music business was booming. It was the big band era, and swing was giving a new shape and sound to American culture. Swing Changes looks at New Deal America through its music and shows us how the contradictions and tensions within swing - over race, politics, its own cultural status, the role of women - mirrored those played out in the larger society. Drawing on memoirs, oral histories, newspapers, magazines, recordings, photographs, literature and films, Swing Changes offers a vibrant picture of American society at a pivotal time, and a new perspective of music as a cultural force.

DAVID W. STONE is Assistant Professor in the Department of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University.

back to previous page