Paperbacks: Dancing in the Streets, by Barbara Ehrenreich

From the ritual ecstasies of ancient Greece through the testifying frenzy of Black churches to rock festivals and the samba schools of Rio, this history and celebration of "collective joy" sings with the spirit of the carnival.

For Ehrenreich, a peaceful riot of our own not only keeps us together and thumbs a nose at power. It banishes the blues: Protestant clampdowns on party-time made Northern latitudes depressed. Someone give Boris a copy now.