Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements. By David Nasaw. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1999
Critical Book Review: Going Out by David Nasaw
David Nasaw's Going Out documents not only the historical relevancy of public amusements in the era, but also their economic and sociological effects. Nasaw paints a picture of amusements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He discusses all of the various forms of amusements from museums, vaudeville's, and nickelodeon's to ball parks, world fairs, and saloon's. Nasaw's chapter by chapter examination of each of the amusements provides an in-depth look at how everyone from the lower/middle class to the upper class spent their leisure time. Nasaw also examines the sociological impacts of these amusements on people, discussing how it served to further aide racial segregation, but also helped to integrate the flourish of European immigrants into American culture.
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