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Electric Dreamland by Lauren Rabinowitz

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Amusement parks of the early 20th century were a hub of activity, melding mechanic marvels and modern culture. In Electric Dreamland, Lauren Rabinovitz delves into the urban reality resulting from these parks, wherein ordinary people formed a shared national identity. Industrialization, urbanization, and immigration transformed society, yet amusement parks eased racial, ethnic, and cultural tensions and narrowed the gender and class gaps. Rabinovitz tracks the simultaneous growth of cinema and leisure parks from 1896-1918, connecting both to a newfound sense of stability. Critics decried parks & film as morally corrosive, yet women's freedoms, racial uplift, assimilation occurred. The mechanical movements of spectacles trained audiences to manage multiple stimuli. Through illustrations from private collections & accounts of unassessed archives, Dreamland paints a unique portrait of mass entertainment & the modern eye.

Columbia University Press, 2012

Softcover

ISBN: 978-0231156615

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