Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Maryland, 2014. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Can you show me the way to the Rebel Cafe? -- Blue angels, black cats, and reds : cabaret and the leftwing roots of the Rebel Cafe -- Subterranean aviators : postwar America's literary underground -- Bop apocalypse, freedom now! : jazz, civil rights, and the politics of cross-racial desire -- Beatniks and blabbermouths, Bartok and bar talk : new bohemia and the search for community -- Rise of the "sickniks" : nightclubs, humor, and the public sphere -- The new cabaret : performance, personal politics, and the end of the Rebel Cafe -- Playboys and partisans : American culture, the new left, and the legacy of the Rebel Cafe.
Summary:
"Beneath the mythical and benign surface of the 1950s roiled a sociocultural movement that would burst into view in the 1960s. The Rebel Cafe illuminates these currents by shining a spotlight on America's urban underground nightlife. In the midst of the Cold War, subterranean nightspots in New York and San Francisco were social, cultural, and even political hothouses for leftwing bohemians and cultural producers. Stephen R. Duncan's analysis of this radical history unveils the interwoven struggles for libertarian anarchism, civil rights, gay liberation, and feminism that shaped the contours of postwar left-liberalism and cultural dissent--as well as the tensions that later tore this fabric into the discreet badges of identity politics. By paying attention to urban leisure and nightlife in the postwar period and connecting these areas to national social change in the 1950s, The Rebel Cafe will appeal to a popular audience as well as cultural historians"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.