Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts

By Joseph Horowitz

“Heroically researched . . . chock-full of fascinating vignettes, stunning quotations, and shrewd insights on the fly.” —New York Times

A masterful study of how the Russian Revolution, the rise of European fascism and the second world war all transformed the American performing arts —The Economist

National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist

Decades of war and revolution in Europe forced an "intellectual migration" during the last century, relocating thousands of artists and thinkers to the United States. For many of Europe's premier performing artists, America proved to be a destination both strange and opportune.

Featuring the stories of George Balanchine, Kurt Weill, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and many others, Artists in Exile explores the impact that these famous newcomers had on American culture, and that America had on them.

Paperback 
480 pages
Harper Perennial, 2009
5 x 8 inches
ISBN 9780060748500
History