Satan in the Dance Hall ─ Rev. John Roach Straton, Social Dancing, and Morality in 1920s New York City

Satan in the Dance Hall: Rev. John Roach Straton, Social Dancing, and Morality in 1920s New York City explores the overwhelming popularity of social dancing and its close relationship to America's rapidly changing society in the early twentieth century. The hook focuses on the fiercely contested debate about the morality of social dancing in New York City, led by such moral reformers and religious leaders as Rev. John Roach Straton. Guided by the firm belief that dancing was a leading cause of immorality, Straton and his followers succeeded in enacting municipal regulations on social dancing and moral conduct within the more than 750 public dance hulls in New York City.
Ralph G. Giordano paints a picture of life in the Jazz Age, incorporating such important events and personalities as the flu epidemic, "Scopes Monkey Trial," Prohibition, flappers, gangsters, Texas Guinan, and Charles Lindbergh - while describing how social dancing was a huge cultural phenomenon intertwined with nearly every aspect of American society from the Great War to the Great Depression. With a bibliography, index, and more than 35 photos, Satan in the, Dance Hall presents an unparalleled interdisciplinary study of social dancing in New York City throughout the decade.

Ralph G. Giordano is the author of Social Dancing in America, Volume 1 (2006) and Volume 2 (2007).