Carnival songs resemble a tabloid newspaper in their verve, spirit and range of themes. They are a measure of social change and an annual summary of events and opinion. The songs involve considerable artistry and are renowned as well for their raucous humor and vulgar concerns. (Promiscuity and sexual misalliances are common subjects.)
Banned by Franco during the Spanish Civil War, the Cá diz carnival began a revival in the 1960's following decades of repression. This fascinating book examines carnival song and society during the last years of the Franco dictatorship and the succeeding period of the new constitutional monarchy, when the Andalusians found their voice and Carnival enjoyed an extraordinary florescence. Songs from rural and urban carnivals in several locales throughout the province of Cá diz provide a compelling picture of Andalusian life in both troubled and more flourishing times.

Carnival songs resemble a tabloid newspaper in their verve, spirit and range of themes. They are a measure of social change and an annual summary of events and opinion. The songs involve considerable artistry and are renowned as well for their raucous humor and vulgar concerns. (Promiscuity and sexual misalliances are common subjects.)
Banned by Franco during the Spanish Civil War, the Cádiz carnival began a revival in the 1960's following decades of repression. This fascinating book examines carnival song and society during the last years of the Franco dictatorship and the succeeding period of the new constitutional monarchy, when the Andalusians found their voice and Carnival enjoyed an extraordinary florescence. Songs from rural and urban carnivals in several locales throughout the province of Cádiz provide a compelling picture of Andalusian life in both troubled and more flourishing times.

"For its intelligence and humanitarian achievements, for its political honesty, for its power and its beauty (there is no other word), this book deserves to be called a masterpiece." American Ethnologist

Jerome R. Mintz s classic study of the lives of Andalusian campesinos who were swept up by one of the 20th century s pivotal social movements provided a new framework for understanding the tragic events that tilted Spain toward civil war. In a new foreword, James W. Fernandez reflects on the fieldwork that led to the book and its contribution to subsequent developments in the ethnography of Europe and the historiography of modern Spain."

Extreme piety, joyous intensity, and a unique social organization have distinguished the Hasidim from other Orthodox Jews since the latter half of the eighteenth century. After the Second World War, survivors of the once thriving Hasidic communities of Eastern Europe began to settle in New York City. Hasidic People is an engrossing social history of the New York community based on extensive interviews, observation, newspaper files, and court records. Jerome Mintz, an anthropologist, combines historical study with tenacious investigation to provide a vivid account of social and religious dynamics. In an objective and thoughtful framework he allows events to unfold through the reports and commentaries of the Hasidim and those in close association with them. Their voices fill the book with vibrant life and meaning. Mintz's work offers new insights into family life, succession in Hasidic dynasties, social change, and conflicts concerning proselytizing, the State of Israel, and Messianic expectations. From Brooklyn enclaves to settlements in the suburbs, we see a people set apart and yet living in close proximity with other ethnic groups, including blacks and Latinos, and facing competition for housing, economic development, and political representation. Hasidic People takes the reader from the various neighborhood settlements through years of growth to the tragic riots in Crown Heights at the close of the summer of 1991. With engaging style, rich in personal insight, the book invites us into this old world within the new, a way of life at once foreign and yet intrinsic to the American experience.