Introduction The Postwar Ethos • Conservatism and Intolerance • The New Economy • Intellectual Disillusionment • Satirizing Conformity Portrait of Middle America • The Lynds and Middletown • From Work to Leisure • Cars and the New Culture • Cultural Passivity • Uniformity and Fragmentation • Gains and Losses The Search for Alternatives • Advocates of Asceticism • Conservative Modernism • Studying Other Cultures • Bohemians and Expatriates The Harlem Renaissance • Capital of Black America • The Costs of White Patronage • The Jazz Singer Conclusion Reading List