Life Flows on in Endless Song
Folk Songs and American History
Published on 1. August 2009
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-252-03455-8 (ISBN)
Description
&&LI&& Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:"; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Life Flows on in Endless Song explores American folk songs as a frame for the American experience. Robert V. Wells discusses how folk songs emerged from particular historical circumstances and evolved as they migrated from one region to another. Crafting a thematic map of four centuries of American history, Wells investigates how songs embody shifting attitudes toward the institution of the family, war and religion, work and the labor movement, transportation in America, and slavery and Jim Crow. He also considers modern folk heroes Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie.
Featuring a selective discography of key recordings, this book offers an accessible model for using folk songs as a richly evocative reflection of the American past.
Featuring a selective discography of key recordings, this book offers an accessible model for using folk songs as a richly evocative reflection of the American past.
Reviews / Votes
"Life Flows on in Endless Song is full of examples that enrich our understanding of the aggregate forces that have transformed America since the colonial era."--The Journal of American History "The best, most up-to-date survey of this topic in print, this is a book for those interested in the intersection of music/song and historical events and figures. Recommended."--Choice "Wells beautifully explains why some songs have continually touched the American psyche for far longer than these states have been a nation."--The Journal of Southern History "Those who consider folk song at its best to be the purest form of social history will thoroughly enjoy this book."--Virginia Quarterly Review "A lovely read with fascinating origin tales of many songs readers will delight in remembering."--Journal of Social History "A muscular, detailed, well researched, stylish and celebratory history of folk music from early America to the 20th Century, with side trips into Britain when necessary to illustrate a point or track a song's lineage."--Sing Out!More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Illustrations
1 table
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-252-03455-8 (9780252034558)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
07/2009
University of Illinois Press
€26.03
Article not available at the moment
Person
Robert V. Wells is the Chauncey H. Winters Professor of History and Social Sciences at Union College in Schenectady, New York, and the author of Facing the 'King of Terrors': Living with Death in an American Community in Schenectady, New York, 1750-1990 and other works.
Content
Preface: Chapter 1: Who Was Tom Dooley?: History and Folk Songs 1; Chapter 2: Careless Love: Courtship, Marriage, and Children 14; Chapter 3: "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory": Of God and Country 57; Chapter 4: "Take This Hammer": Work and the Labor Movement 105; Chapter 5: The Man Who Never Returned: Ships, Trains and Other Transportation 150; Chapter 6: Just Lookin' for a Home: Traveling On 190; Chapter 7: Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen: Hard Times and Hard Men 231; Chapter 8: How Can I Keep from Singing?: Huddie Ledbetter and Woody Guthrie 277; Coda: Thinking about Folk Songs 307; Bibliography and Discography 321