Subterranean nightspots in 1950s New York and San Francisco were social, cultural, and political hothouses for left-wing bohemians.
The art and antics of rebellious figures in 1950s American nightlife-from the Beat Generation to eccentric jazz musicians and comedians-have long fascinated fans and scholars alike. In The Rebel Caf-i>, Stephen R. Duncan flips the frame, focusing on the New York and San Francisco bars, nightclubs, and coffeehouses from which these cultural icons emerged. Duncan shows that the sexy, smoky sites of bohemian Greenwich Village and North Beach offered not just entertainment but doorways to a new sociopolitical consciousness.
This book is a collective biography of the places that harbored beatniks, blabbermouths, hipsters, playboys, and partisans who altered the shape of postwar liberal politics and culture. Throughout this period, Duncan argues, nightspots were crucial-albeit informal-institutions of the American democratic public sphe
