During the 1930s, swing bands combined jazz and popular music to create large-scale dreams for the Depression generation, capturing the imagination of America's young people, music critics and the music business. This book explores that world, looking at the racial mixing-up and musical swinging-out that shook the nation and has kept people dancing ever since. The text is a study of the big band era, chiefly during its golden hours in the 1930s; Lewis A. Erenberg places the music within a larger context and makes his case for its importance.