Carnal Sociology in Black Hawk Hancock's American Allegory

This post includes a review of the book American Allegory by Black Hawk Hancock. I then discuss what the book shows, in my view, for how to write as a sociologist, in line with this blog's theme of how to do various academic tasks.

American Allegory is about Lindy Hop and Steppin', which are related dances—Steppin' grew out of dance traditions that the Lindy Hop started. The Lindy Hop, in particular, is an "American Allegory" because the story of the Lindy Hop (created in the 1920s and 1930s in Harlem) and its revival in the late 1990s is an example of black creativity and labour that was appropriated by white people who then erased the history of that black creativity and labour. This is allegorical to the American story in more general terms, the book argues, where black labour and creativity is hidden underneath the loudly proclaimed expression and successes of whites (or the general “American” assumed to be white).

In Hancock's words,

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