Cool. It was a new word and a new way to be, and in a single
generation, it became the supreme compliment of American culture. The
Origins of Cool in Postwar America uncovers the hidden history of this
concept and its new set of codes that came to define a global attitude
and style. As Joel Dinerstein reveals in this dynamic book, cool began
as a stylish defiance of racism, a challenge to suppressed sexuality, a
philosophy of individual rebellion, and a youthful search for social
change.
Through eye-opening portraits of iconic figures, Dinerstein illuminates
the cultural connections and artistic innovations among Lester Young,
Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Jack
Kerouac, Albert Camus, Marlon Brando, and James Dean, among others. We
eavesdrop on conversations among Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir,
and Miles Davis, and on a forgotten debate between Lorraine Hansberry
and Norman Mailer over the "white Negro" and black cool. We come to
understand how the cool worlds of Beat writers and Method actors emerged
from the intersections of film noir, jazz, and existentialism. Out of
this mix, Dinerstein sketches nuanced definitions of cool that unite
concepts from African-American and Euro-American culture: the stylish
stoicism of the ethical rebel loner; the relaxed intensity of the
improvising jazz musician; the effortless, physical grace of the Method
actor. To be cool is not to be hip and to be hot is definitely not to be
cool.
This is the first work to trace the history of cool during the Cold War
by exploring the intersections of film noir, jazz, existential
literature, Method acting, blues, and rock and roll. Dinerstein reveals
that they came together to create something completely new--and that
something is cool*.*
