Imperial Blues: Geographies of Race and Sex in Jazz Age New York

by Fiona I.B. Ngô

In this pathbreaking study, Fiona I. B. Ngô examines how geographies of U.S. empire were perceived and enacted during the 1920s and 1930s. Focusing on New York during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Ngô traces the city's multiple circuits of jazz music and culture. In considering this cosmopolitan milieu, where immigrants from the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Japan, and China crossed paths with blacks and white "slummers" in dancehalls and speakeasies, she investigates imperialism's profound impact on racial, gendered, and sexual formations. As nightclubs overflowed with the sights and sounds of distant continents, tropical islands, and exotic bodies, tropes of empire provided both artistic possibilities and policing rationales. These renderings naturalized empire and justified expansion, while establishing transnational modes of social control within and outside the imperial city. Ultimately, Ngô argues that domestic structures of race and sex during the 1920s and 1930s cannot be understood apart from the imperial ambitions of the United States.
 

Genres: History

280 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Elen]

There are some good ideas in here but frankly it's the kind of academic writing that should have gone out of style 20 years ago. Way too much jargon that could EASILY be simplified and phrased more naturally, and the kind of repetition that makes you honestly wonder if Ngô had some kind of minimum page count to shoot for. This entire book could have made a really solid 50 page article; instead it goes on for almost 200 pages stating the same things over and over again in increasingly florid language. Kind of a shame, because like I said, there are some decent ideas buried in there.

[Christine]

Challenging but well worth the read.