Book Review: Dancing in the Streets - A History of Collective Joy

In researching for a possible essay on state fairs / carnivals / things like that I came across the book Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehrenreich. The book came out last year and is a kind of sociological survey of different events / moments in history that involve collective festivity. The book asks why we chose to celebrate in large groups and why sharing festivity/ fun with others is important. I'm almost completely done with the book (so I guess this isn't a legitimate review as of now) but so far it is fabulous. The book first looks at ritual dances and drumming common in different regions in Africa, and how the first European / Western explorers first deemed these communal events as "barbaric" and "satanic". It goes on to claim that the influence of Freud in the West – his ideas that humans cannot enjoy group settings that involve more than two people, as they immediately see them in terms of negative power/control dynamics – has made us, in the West, more prone to make these diagnoses. It also looks at the early cults of Dionysus and claims that Dionysus was, with his mysterious sexuality and strict adherence to revelry, the “first rock star”. The book explains how early carnivals in Europe were a means of social revolution/ upsetting the class system. How religion shut down carnival and how the Calvinist strain of the Protestant faith produced stalwart followers, wary of any kind of “fun” and especially “group fun” as found in carnivals or festivals. Calvinist diehards also produced one of the highest suicide rates of any other group of people ever documented in history. Ehrenreich’s diagnosis is that if they would have let themselves dance some more, they may have lived longer if less “moral” lives. Ehrenreich’s research covers more modern forms of collective joy – from fascist gatherings, to the “rock revolution” in the US and England in the 50s and 60s. I enjoy how the book has given me perspective. How it provides evidence of the kinds of intensely emotional/ spiritual collective celebrations that exist in other parts of the world and that have existed in history. My favorite insight from the book is that the human brain is wired to replicate dancing / rhythmic motion once it sees it. I recommend the book to anyone remotely interested in the subject – it offers a lot of compelling research and is an entertaining read. It will also make you feel morally obligated to dance / squeeze the most enjoyment out of any group celebration .