Meet the Author: Morris Dickstein

MEET MORRIS DICKSTEIN, author of Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression. 

Only yesterday the Great Depression seemed like a bad memory, receding into the hazy distance with little relevance to our own flush times. Economists assured us that the calamities that befell our grandparents could not happen again, yet the recent economic meltdown has again focused the world's attention on the 1930s. Morris Dickstein explores the anxiety and hope, the despair and surprising optimism of a traumatized nation.

Hailed as one of the best books of 2009 by the New York Timesand the Los Angeles Times, and a National Book Critics Circle finalist, Dancing in the Dark (W.W. Norton, 2009) was called "The definitive book about Depression culture for our time" by the San Francisco Chronicle. Dickstein is Distinguished Professor of English and Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center, and the author of Gates of Eden and Leopards in the Temple, among other works. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library. 11 a.m.