{"product_id":"birth-of-the-cool-beat-bebop-the-american-avant-garde-by-lewis-macadams","title":"'Birth of the Cool: Beat, Bebop \u0026 the American Avant-Garde' by Lewis MacAdams","description":"\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBefore cool became something to buy, wear or perform, it was an attitude. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBirth of the Cool\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, poet and cultural historian Lewis MacAdams traces the emergence of one of the twentieth century's most influential cultural sensibilities, moving between jazz clubs, experimental art, literature, underground film and the restless intellectual life of postwar America.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeginning with the artistic experiments of Marcel Duchamp and the revolutionary improvisations of jazz musicians, MacAdams follows the people who helped transform cool from a marginal sensibility into a defining feature of American culture. Jackson Pollock, Miles Davis, Jack Kerouac, Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young and the Beat writers appear alongside the painters, filmmakers and cultural outsiders who rejected conventional respectability in favour of experimentation, spontaneity and new ways of living.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe book explores how artistic innovation emerges through friendships, rivalries, chance encounters and the circulation of ideas between seemingly unrelated disciplines. Particularly compelling is MacAdams's attention to cool as something more complicated than fashion: a response to authority, an aesthetic of detachment, and an attempt to create freedom within the social and political constraints of its time. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSimon \u0026amp; Schuster, 2002. Paperback. Good condition, with light shelf wear and minor rubbing to the covers.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"bower studio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67743103647827,"sku":null,"price":16.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/0268\/2707\/files\/womenintranslation-2026-10-19T193039.152.png?v=1792398691","url":"https:\/\/bowerbooks.com\/products\/birth-of-the-cool-beat-bebop-the-american-avant-garde-by-lewis-macadams","provider":"bower books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}