writers, actors, producers were blacklisted; Hollywood was suspected of being a hotbed of
communists, according to the FBI.
Tucker’s research includes declassified excerpts of the FBI files that followed suspected
Communist activities by Canteen organizers and participants, to the physicality of the
"jitterbug,” the torque of which exemplifies the complexity of the relationship of the Canteen to
the population, and race and gender relations both civilian and military. Torque is an essential
quality of Jitterbug — the dance. The metaphoric use of the qualities of torque, (mechanics: a
twisting force that tends to cause rotation), is shrewdly applied to enhance the reader’s
understanding of the complexity of the politics, race relations and gender assumptions of the
period. The jitterbug, and the literal sense of a jitterbug: a bug that is jittery or continuous
movement in a multiplicity of directions reflects the variety of attitudes and interactions
experienced by the visitors to the canteen. The story of the torque of the jitterbug, “bodies
sharing weight, velocity, and turning power without guaranteed outcomes is an apt metaphor
for the jostling narratives, different perspectives, unsteady memories, and quotidian acts that
comprise social history” (Tucker).
Tucker aptly documents the discrepancies between national memory as exemplified in
the romanticized film, Hollywood Canteen, and the racism and sexism underpinning the
reality. As Tucker puts it: “This is a long book about a small place while at the same time a
small book about a large topic." Her work unveils a forgotten but critical piece of our national
experience.
Margot Mink Colbert, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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