Then and now …

… The Lost World of Jazz | Peter Tonguette | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The film’s consistent focus on the faces in the crowd reveals something that would surprise none of us but is startling to see nonetheless: namely that, during the second term of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, ours was a country that still valued manners, courtesy, and a certain decorous kind of joy.