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 John-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.
About the Author
Joel Dinerstein was the curator of American Cool, an acclaimed exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, and the author of its accompanying catalog. He is also the author of "Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and African-American Culture" and "Coach: A History of New York Cool". He is an associate professor of English at Tulane University.
Reviews
"'The Origins of Cool' vibrates with the energy of its very subject – as restrained, composed, and revitalized as the postwar rebel himself. From the cafes of the existentialists to the bars of film noir, from Lester Young's sax to Elvis's pout, Dinerstein offers a brilliant exegesis of the simmering mode of resistance we call cool. He penetrates the meanings of a misunderstood mode – a concept, a mood, a posture – while connecting the rich details of art and culture to the deepest transformations of the postwar world. The Origins of Cool takes the elusive and inchoate and renders them clear and nearly tangible, making the reader feel this mysterious current of postwar culture as if for the first time. This is a masterwork" – Jefferson Cowie, author of "Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class"
"Dinerstein has written a thoughtful and entertaining account of cool – the most powerful image of how one should be since the English gentleman dominated the world. It's a history, a handbook, and a manual, filled with fascinating accounts of those stellar individuals whose aggressively haughty, patrician coldness was rooted in hip opposition and revolt" – John Szwed, author of "Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth"
"Dinerstein takes seriously the roots of cool. Rather than some kind of irresponsible, juvenile put-on or species of ill-earned irony, cool is shown to be a game played for the highest of stakes – personal survival in the face of the era's unconcealed racism and barbarity that gave the lie to western civilization's moral self-congratulation" – Benjamin Cawthra, author of "Blue Notes in Black and White: Photography and Jazz"
"'The Origins of Cool in Postwar America' will be the standard reference for those who wish to understand the deep historical roots for coolness as a cultural style and ethos – a 'public mode of covert resistance', an expression of faith in the integrity and agency of the individual in the face of depression, war, occupation, segregation, and the threat of nuclear annihilation – rather than as a trendy pose or an emblem of hip consumerism. Dinerstein has achieved something like a unified field theory of the postwar American arts combined with a history of ideas attached to the quest for ethical renewal and existential affirmation" – John Gennari, author of "Blowin' Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics"
