Joel Dinerstein

writer & professor
race, music & cool

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My TEDx Talk: Why Cool Matters

May 08, 2015

The French have chic; Americans invented cool. The origins of the most global of American cultural concepts, featuring Lester Young, Patti Smith, and Elvis, with sidebars to Johnny Cash, Dylan, and Prince. Why Cool Matters.

Joel Dinerstein is the author of three books on cool, including the first history of the concept (The Origins of Cool in Postwar America), the first major exhibit of cool icons (American Cool), and a corporate history, Coach: A Story of NY Cool. My TED Talk, entitled "Why Cool Matters," can be found on YouTube. I am also the author of the award-winning Swinging the Machine, a theory of swing-era jazz and technology, and Jazz: A Quick Immersion, a short history and listening guide.

I am a cultural historian and Professor of English at Tulane University, and hold a Ph.D in American Studies from the University of Texas @ Austin.

In 2014, I curated the exhibit American Cool at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. American Cool featured 100 cool icons and 100 photographs, and it was based on my historical research.