Reviews

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehrenreich

fheimburger's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

wavysagey's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

so insanely good and also reaffirming my earlier statement that I would like to have a bacchanalia

iillianne's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

4.0

Super dense as it takes the time to contextualize a variety of forms of collective joy with a heavier focus on the efforts to remove it ranging from ancient times to current. Def worth the deep dive. 

belwood303's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

A beautiful history of humans told from the perspective of collective movement - dancing, chanting, marching. Cool to hear about how this kind of choregraphed movement may have made humans appear like a larger or at least scarier threat. Interesting to hear about how the oppression of lower classes also goes hand in hand with preventing them from dancing together, aspects of Carnival right down to raves.

collins1129's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful informative lighthearted slow-paced

4.5

sscherer0410's review

Go to review page

informative slow-paced

3.0

eelsmac's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.75

spacedancekitten's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark informative sad slow-paced

1.0

More focused on the loss of joy and ecstasy than actually exploring collective joy. 

raalux's review

Go to review page

informative inspiring reflective

5.0

This is the kind of non-fiction read that, if not overhauled, definitely enhanced my view of humanity and its history in a beautiful and profound way. 

cbharpy's review against another edition

Go to review page

I was frustrated with the way research was presented. I felt more often like I was being beat over the head with a hypothesis and all research was presented in a way to push that hypothesis, but some of the stuff she presented as supporting research are things I already have read about and found her interpretation bizarre or forced. There were some interesting ideas, but overall, I just couldn't take her seriously.