Taking up where the volume "Early Jazz" left off, this second volume of Gunther Schuller's history of jazz considers the swing era - the age of dance bands and radio shows. Tracing the origins of swing and its effects on American musical and social life, he assesses the distinctive sounds of great bandleaders like Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Woody Herman, instrumentalists such as Art Tatum, Cab Calloway and Pee Wee Russell, and such vocalists as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee.

During the 1930s, swing bands combined jazz and popular music to create dreams for a depression generation. This book explores that world, taking a look into the musical and racial integration. Long before organized baseball or the armed forces experienced racial integration, the fan culture that surrounded these big bands had broken down many barriers that separated people from different racial backgrounds. The author aims to show how a dance subculture forged in the late 1920s and early 1930s, became a music genre that symbolized American society. The book tells the story of swing's rapid rise and the music and culture that bolstered a nation during one of its lowest periods.