Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America

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 picture of American society at a pivotal time, and a perspective on music as a cultural force.