Paris Was Yesterday 1925 1939 Sound Recording

In 1925 Flanner began her New Yorker "Letter from Paris", from which most of the pieces in this collection are drawn. They give an incomparable view of French life before World War II.

Balancing sophisticated melodies and irresistible rhythms with lyrics by turns cynical and passionate, Cole Porter sent American song soaring on gossamer wings. Timeless works like "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "At Long Last Love" made him an essential figure in the soundtrack of a century and earned him adoration from generations of music lovers. In A Cole Porter Companion , a parade of performers and scholars offers essays on little-known aspects of the master tunesmith's life and art. Here are Porter's days as a Yale wunderkind and his nights as the exemplar of louche living; the triumph of Kiss Me Kate and shocking failure of You Never Know ; and his spinning rhythmic genius and a turkey dinner into "You're the Top" while cultural and economic forces take "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" in unforeseen directions. Other entries explore notes on ongoing Porter scholarship and delve into his formative works, performing career, and long-overlooked contributions to media as varied as film and ballet. Prepared with the cooperation of the Porter archives, A Cole Porter Companion is an invaluable guide for the fans and scholars of this beloved American genius.

"At Home in Our Sounds: Music, Race, and Cultural Politics in Interwar Paris shows how and why music became part of the social changes Europe faced in the aftermath of World War One. It focuses on the story of black music in Paris and the people who created it, enjoyed it, criticised it and felt at home when they heard it. African Americans, French Antilleans, and French West Africans wrote, danced, sang, and acted politically in response to the heightened visibility of racial difference in Paris during this era. They were consumed with questions that continue to resonate today. Could one be black and French? Was black solidarity more important than national and colonial identity? How could French culture include the experiences and contributions of Africans and Antilleans? From highly educated women, like the Nardal sisters of Martinique, to the working black musicians performing in crowded nightclubs at all hours, At Home in Our Sounds gives a fully rounded view of black reactions to jazz in interwar Paris. It places that phenomenon in its historic and political context, and in doing so shows how music and music-making formed a vital terrain of cultural politics. It shows how music-making brought people together around pianos, on the dancefloor, and through reading and gossip, but it did not erase the political and regional and national differences between them. It shows that many found a home in Paris but did not always feel at home. This book reveals these dimensions of music-making, race, and cultural politics in interwar Paris"--

In 1925 Janet Flanner began writing a fortnightly 'letter from Paris' for the nascent New Yorker. This is a collection of those letters written in the 1920s and 1930s, one of the most fascinating periods in the city's history.

Includes entries for maps and atlases.

The Realisms of Berenice Abbott provides the first in-depth consideration of the work of photographer Berenice Abbott. Though best known for her 1930s documentary images of New York City, this book examines a broad range of Abbott’s work—including portraits from the 1920s, little known and uncompleted projects from the 1930s, and experimental science photography from the 1950s. It argues that Abbott consistently relied on realism as the theoretical armature for her work, even as her understanding of that term changed over time and in relation to specific historical circumstances. But as Weissman demonstrates, Abbott’s unflinching commitment to "realist" aesthetics led her to develop a critical theory of documentary that recognizes the complexity of representation without excluding or obscuring a connection between art and engagement in the political public sphere. In telling Abbott’s story, The Realisms of Berenice Abbott reveals insights into the politics and social context of documentary production and presents a thoughtful analysis of why documentary remains a compelling artistic strategy today.