Bohemia in America, 1858-1920

Bohemia in America, 1858-1920. By Joanna Levin. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010. x, 469 pp. $65.00, isbn 978-0-80476083-6.)

Bohemia in America is revisionist history in the best sense. Not only does it overturn received wisdom but it also reveals, on a vast canvas long assumed to be more or less blank, a vivid collage of scenes and portraits, rich in both concrete details and meaningful abstractions. In this case, the received wisdom is the claim that in the United States bohemianism was a relatively inconsequential affair, a pale and nearly irrelevant version of the famed Parisian vie bohème. Joanna Levin convincingly proves otherwise. Most impressive, however, is Levin's exploration of numerous versions of "bohemia," each with a family resemblance to the others, yet each one unique in its interpretation, articulation, and...