Sherrie Tucker makes an original contribution to the expanding field of cultural memory studies by means of this highly impressive study of wartime swing culture, which focuses on the tensions between national identity and equality at the Hollywood Canteen. As one of the most renowned patriotic home front nightclubs of WWII, the Hollywood Canteen (1942–5) provided morale-boosting entertainment facilities for the enlisted members of the Allied forces, who were deemed to be fighting the ‘good war’ against fascism. Staffed by volunteers that included representatives from the Hollywood film industry, stock images from the venue routinely portray movie celebrities jitterbugging with ‘ordinary’ servicemen, thus embracing notions of democracy being practised on the club's packed dance floor. Such iconography resonates to the extent that the Hollywood Canteen has since become embedded within US cultural memory as epitomising the ‘greatest generation’ that, in spirit at least, fought side by side to uphold the American values of freedom and equality during a crucial stage in the nation's history.

However, as Tucker's incisive analysis reveals, far from being a democratic establishment, the venue (its dance floor in particular) was the source of racism, sexism and other forms of inequality. Notwithstanding these inconsistencies between perception and practice, the author eloquently argues that the potency of the celebratory cultural memories that encapsulate the Canteen function to nullify any of what would be disruptive contradictions within its illustrious narrative. As Tucker further illustrates, such agendas are driven by a multitude of factors, not least by an obligation to apply a nostalgic sheen to images and reminiscences that symbolise continuum within national memory on perceived threats to democracy within a post-9/11 environment.

Compellingly written from the vantage point of the dance floor, the author applies appropriate measures of oral history, gender studies, musicology and dance theory to skilfully navigate the reader between the dancers that inhabit this key cultural space. Within this setting we feel the warmth of their bodies, hear the diversity of their voices above the noise of the swing music being performed in the background, and catch the nuances of their expressions. Moreover, through the frequent depiction of torque (as applied during the jitterbug and lindy dance manoeuvres), we also experience the push-pull physicality of swing culture, sense the weight sharing and velocity of the dancers in motion, and witness the variations of the dance moves. Expressive gyrations of this type enable Tucker to adopt these as a series of effective metaphors that represent cultural distinctions, faltering memories and diverse narratives. Given the fact that most of the dancers interviewed for the book are now dead (the author took 10 years to undertake the fieldwork, and 14 years overall to complete this detailed study), such clear representations of embodiment and thereness bear testament to the author's notable writing skills.

Locality and place frame the account, with Hollywood's individuality assuming new values in light of the temporal setting. In this respect, Tucker travels the highways and byways of wartime Los Angeles, following the routes taken by several of the audience-participants to and from the venue. Amid the pathways, traffic junctions and bus schedules, the reader encounters the strict local boundaries that encompass economics, politics, gender, nationality, ethnicity and race. In the latter instances, the racial tensions that engulf both Mexican-American and African-American neighbourhoods and inhabitants as a result of military, employment, public service and recreational exclusion are juxtaposed with the notion of the democratic dance floor at the Canteen. Further exclusions are also seen to apply: 20 miles from the venue, local Japanese-Americans are interned at one of several ‘assembly centres’ in the area, and are forced to construct their own forms of swing culture at dance events organised by the detainees within this isolated and ostracised community. Despite the relatively short distance between the two locations, Tucker's evaluation of these dance floor disparities and similarities serves to emphasise the extent of the underlying conflicts that shaped local engagement with the war effort, as well as exposing the gaps in its supposed democratic underpinning.

The interaction between military guests and civilian volunteers at the venue forms a major part of Tucker's analysis. The different dimensions of discrimination both within and between these groups are shown to materialise on and around the dance floor. The author depicts how some, most notably female military personnel and draft-age civilian males, experience forms of exclusion at the front entrance, while others are prevented from assuming a presence on the dance floor. Furthermore, the author skilfully discloses how the ‘colour line’ within the dance environment is both transparent and veiled throughout the proceedings, with its visibility being dependent on the perspective of the participant-observer, the type of dance, the extent of the torque applied, and its representation within memory or media.

In this instance, Tucker illuminates how Hollywood Canteen (1944), the Delmer Daves feature film that was based on the venue, presents the viewer with a sanitised vision of an integrated dance floor. To this end, the author skilfully uncovers the original script, as well as its subsequent treatments, and reveals that limited multicultural compromises were made in order to address rising war-related political pressures on race and national identity. While Tucker welcomes these concessions, her textual analysis of the finished product finds that many of these changes were superficial in nature.

The book concludes with the premise that Dance Floor Democracy can perhaps be regarded as an alternate treatment of the original film. Indeed, in numerous ways, Tucker's absorbing and highly creative multidimensional analysis of memory, musicology, social history, race and gender functions to underline many of the inconsistencies within the film. Despite the somewhat superfluous pursuit of a dance floor-initiated personal injury case that adds little value to the book, this thorough and extensive study can be regarded as an original and noteworthy addition to the research field of cultural memory studies. Engrossingly written, the book's main strength lies within its ability to reposition the Hollywood Canteen as a location where many of the United States’ underlying conflicts with democracy and equality were articulated through music and dance.