The Origins of Cool in Postwar America

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. We eavesdrop on conversations among Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Miles Davis, and on a forgotten debate between Lorraine Hansberry and Norman Mailer over the "white Negro" and black cool. We come to understand how the cool worlds of Beat writers and Method actors emerged from the intersections of film noir, jazz, and existentialism. Out of this mix, Dinerstein sketches nuanced definitions of cool that unite concepts from African-American and Euro-American culture: the stylish stoicism of the ethical rebel loner; the relaxed intensity of the improvising jazz musician; the effortless, physical grace of the Method actor. To be cool is not to be hip and to be hot is definitely not to be cool. This is the first work to trace the history of cool during the Cold War by exploring the intersections of film noir, jazz, existential literature, Method acting, blues, and rock and roll. Dinerstein reveals that they came together to create something completely new—and that something is cool.

Humor & Entertainment

Dinerstein, Joel

Movies

University of Chicago Press

Celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of this iconic luxury fashion brand, this book presents a vibrant visual survey of Coach’s continual exploration and redefinition of American style, infused with its distinctively cool New York City spirit. At the heart of Coach, arguably one the world’s most recognizable fashion brands, is its effortless New York style, cutting-edge design, craftsmanship, and authenticity. This volume explores the evolution of this American company, from its beginnings in 1941 in a small loft as a manufacturer of leather goods to its transformation into a revered international fashion and lifestyle brand. Inspired by the pulsating energy of New York City in the 1960s, the company’s owners Miles and Lillian Cahn cultivated an entirely new Coach brand that offered not only men’s leather goods, but also women’s handbags, totes, small leather goods, and other accessories envisioned by the legendary American sportswear designer Bonnie Cashin. Each creative director from Cashin to Stuart Vevers, the company’s current head of creative since 2013, continued to evolve the modern definition of "American cool" in the relaxed aesthetic and effortless style of Coach’s designs. This richly illustrated volume features both recent and archival photography, ranging from product design sketches to iconic advertising campaigns, and imagery of Coach’s inspirational references from celebrity figures to the electrifying, fast-paced cityscapes of New York City. A definitive volume of the brand’s celebrated heritage, Coach will be treasured by its devoted customers and fashion, style, and cultural enthusiasts alike.

Coach: A Story of New York Cool

Arts & Photography

Graphic Design

Rizzoli

In any age and any given society, cultural practices reflect the material circumstances of people's everyday lives. According to Joel Dinerstein, it was no different in America between the two World Wars-an era sometimes known as the "machine age"-when innovative forms of music and dance helped a newly urbanized population cope with the increased mechanization of modern life. Grand spectacles such as the Ziegfeld Follies and the movies of Busby Berkeley captured the American ethos of mass production, with chorus girls as the cogs of these fast, flowing pleasure vehicles. 
Yet it was African American culture, Dinerstein argues, that ultimately provided the means of aesthetic adaptation to the accelerated tempo of modernity. Drawing on a legacy of engagement with and resistance to technological change, with deep roots in West African dance and music, black artists developed new cultural forms that sought to humanize machines. In "The Ballad of John Henry," the epic toast "Shine," and countless blues songs, African Americans first addressed the challenge of industrialization. Jazz musicians drew on the symbol of the train within this tradition to create a set of train-derived aural motifs and rhythms, harnessing mechanical power to cultural forms. Tap dance and the lindy hop brought machine aesthetics to the human body, while the new rhythm section of big band swing mimicked the industrial soundscape of northern cities. In Dinerstein's view, the capacity of these artistic innovations to replicate the inherent qualities of the machine-speed, power, repetition, flow, precision-helps explain both their enormous popularity and social function in American life.

Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and African American Culture between the World Wars

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

University of Massachusetts Press

In any age and any given society, cultural practices reflect the material circumstances of people's everyday lives. According to Joel Dinerstein, it was no different in America between the two World Wars-an era sometimes known as the "machine age"-when innovative forms of music and dance helped a newly urbanized population cope with the increased mechanization of modern life. Grand spectacles such as the Ziegfeld Follies and the movies of Busby Berkeley captured the American ethos of mass production, with chorus girls as the cogs of these fast, flowing pleasure vehicles. Yet it was African American culture, Dinerstein argues, that ultimately provided the means of aesthetic adaptation to the accelerated tempo of modernity. Drawing on a legacy of engagement with and resistance to technological change, with deep roots in West African dance and music, black artists developed new cultural forms that sought to humanize machines. In "The Ballad of John Henry," the epic toast "Shine," and countless blues songs, African Americans first addressed the challenge of industrialization. Jazz musicians drew on the symbol of the train within this tradition to create a set of train-derived aural motifs and rhythms, harnessing mechanical power to cultural forms. Tap dance and the lindy hop brought machine aesthetics to the human body, while the new rhythm section of big band swing mimicked the industrial soundscape of northern cities. In Dinerstein's view, the capacity of these artistic innovations to replicate the inherent qualities of the machine-speed, power, repetition, flow, precision-helps explain both their enormous popularity and social function in American life.

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Jazz is the foundation of all American music. Starting out as a rhythmic revolution in New Orleans, jazz morphed into big band swing, bebop, and rhythm-and-blues, while its ideas of groove and improvisation became integral to soul and rock, then funk and hip-hop. This book focuses on jazz's development in the African-American communities of five cities - New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City, New York, and Los Angeles - through a combination of urban studies, historical context, and key profiles of major figures. It is also a listening guide: curated playlists illuminate the dynamic interaction of solo and group, blues and grooves, improvisation and ensemble swinging. Jazz masters taught the planet's musicians how to find their own individual voices and then to risk this in dynamic conversation with others. Jazz is a story of art, culture, race, freedom, aesthetics, politics, struggle, and self-expression.

JAZZ: A Quick Immersion (Quick Immersions)

Music

Tibidabo Publishing, Inc.

What does it mean when we say someone is cool? This luminous collection of portraits and film stills sheds new light on the term, its origins, and its evolution―with some surprising and provocative results. The term “cool” has become such a part of America’s modern lexicon that it seems to have lost its meaning. This stellar collection of photographs from the National Portrait Gallery and from prominent artists, museums, and archives nationwide would argue otherwise. The idea of cool is not only older than we think―it’s also constantly changing, aided by the mediums of portraiture and film. Readers will find unexpected and familiar faces here: Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, and Georgia O’Keeffe, as well as James Dean, Bob Dylan, and Chrissie Hynde. In perceptive essays, Joel Dinerstein investigates the evolution of cool from the 1930s to the present while Frank Goodyear explores how the mediums of film and photography have helped define the term. An extensive selection of one hundred chronologically arranged portraits, with biographical information about each subject, profiles major eras and movements of the past decades, each with its own brand of coolness. Exploring cultural icons, this volume encourages readers to find new meaning and depth in the idea of American cool.

American Cool

Goodyear III, Frank H.

Individual Artists

Prestel

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Books by Dinerstein, Joel