There is No Harm in Dancing

Penn, W. E., 1832-1895Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

1.9

Word count: 68K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.There is No Harm in Dancing by W. E. PennAuthor: Penn, W. E., 1832-1895,Language: English, Class: GV: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation: Recreation, Leisure, Release Date: Nov 27, 2004

Editor's review

This is a nineteenth-century pamphlet by the American author W. E. Penn discussing the question of dancing, centring on the social debate of the time over "whether dancing is harmful." The author's position is clear, arguing from angles of morality, social custom, and personal cultivation that dancing may bring negative effects; the writing has an obvious hortatory tone and bears the marks of its era. As a public-domain text included in Project Gutenberg, its value lies not in offering conclusions that can be applied today, but in preserving a sample of nineteenth-century social custom and moral debate, useful for readers studying the history of leisure, religious ethics, and changing social etiquette. The argumentative style also gives it a brisk pace, making it suitable as supplementary material for courses on social and cultural history, or for readers curious about old ways of life to browse as a period piece. It should be read with a sense of distance, understanding the author's views within their historical context.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students studying nineteenth-century American social custom and leisure history
Readers concerned with religious ethics and changing social etiquette
Culture enthusiasts who enjoy reading argumentative pamphlets from earlier eras
Teachers who need English public-domain historical material as course supplements

Not a good fit for

Readers looking for a modern dance tutorial or technique book
Readers expecting a neutral, objective academic survey rather than a hortatory style
Readers uncomfortable with religious and moral preaching

Reading tips

Read the opening and closing sections first to grasp the author's core arguments and argumentative structure.
While reading, note the types of evidence the author uses, to facilitate comparison with contemporary debate texts.
Understand the book's views within the nineteenth-century social context, avoiding direct application of today's standards.
Read alongside etiquette literature of the same period to form a three-dimensional picture of the customs of the time.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book arguing against dancing?

Judging from the title and the author's position, the book tends to argue that dancing is not harmless, with a hortatory and moral-debate flavour. But the specific argumentation and scope of conclusions should be based on the original text. Readers should treat it as one voice in a nineteenth-century social debate, not as a definitive work on dancing.

What is the value of reading this old book today?

Its main value is at the level of historical source material. It preserves a sample of nineteenth-century debate on leisure entertainment and moral norms, helping readers understand the social climate, religious ethics, and modes of public discussion of the time. For those studying the history of social custom, changing etiquette, or public-domain literature, such pamphlets have a unique reference value.

Is the English original long? Is it suitable for reading straight through?

According to the source, the book is a Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook classified under leisure and entertainment; it was originally an argumentative pamphlet and should not be long. Readers with basic English reading ability can finish it in two or three sittings. If one only wants to grasp the arguments, one can read the opening and concluding sections first, then decide whether to read chapter by chapter.

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About the author

Penn, W. E., 1832-1895 Author · American · 1832–1895

W. E. Penn (1832–1895) was an American author whose life and background are poorly documented in publicly available sources; the information that can be confirmed comes mainly from his surviving works. One work by him is held in this collection, There Is No Harm in Dancing. Judging from its title, the book addresses dancing as an everyday amusement, and likely engages the social and moral debate over whether dancing is proper or harmful, bearing the clear tone of exhortation and argument common to nineteenth-century American popular moral writing. Such works were usually aimed at general readers, written in plain language and intended to persuade rather than to build systematic theory. Because the material is scarce, his full range as a writer and his historical influence are difficult to assess, but the book offers a concrete text for observing the social manners and moral attitudes of the period.