From Astaire to Steinbeck, this timely and long-awaited history of the 1930s sets the creative energies of the Great Depression against a backdrop of poverty and economic disaster. Gathering a staggering range of materials-from images of rural poverty to zany screwball comedies, wildly popular swing[...]

At once a coming-of-age story, an intellectual autobiography, and vivid cultural history, Why Not Say What Happened is an eloquent, gripping account of an intellectual and emotional education from one of our leading critics. In this "acutely observed, slyly funny memoir" (Molly Haskell), Morris Dick[...]