They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

by Horace McCoy

Published 24 September 1970
The Great Depression led people to take desperate measures to survive. The marathon dance craze, which flourished at that time, seemed a simple way for people to earn extra money, dancing the hours away for cash, for weeks at a time.
But the underside of that craze was a competition and violence unknown to most ballrooms. A lurid tale of dancing and desperation, Horace McCoy's classic American novel captures the dark side of the 1930s.