Songs of America Book Summary - Songs of America Book explained in key points

Songs of America summary

Name: Songs of America
Rating: 4.2 (21 reviews)
Author: Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw

Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw

Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation

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4.2 (21 ratings)

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What is Songs of America about?

Songs of America (2019) explores the music that has shaped American History. From African American spirituals to Elvis Presley’s rock and roll, these blinks shine a light on the music that has defined the progress, defeats and protests of Americans from all walks of life, over the last three centuries.

About the Author

Jon Meacham is an American author. In 2009, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his biographical book American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He is currently a contributing editor to Time Magazine. Tim McGraw is a country music singer and actor. He has received three Grammys and ten American Music Awards.

Table of Contents

Key idea 1 of 7

Early American freedom fighters were inspired to write revolutionary songs.

On June 10, 1768, Boston was on the verge of war. John Harrison, a British customs official, was attempting to confiscate a local ship, claiming that its American owner had not paid sufficient taxes on its contents. In response, Boston locals threw bricks, stones and insults at their British overlords. Though the British were not defeated that day, something else would come out of the Boston uprising – a song.

Following the riot, Pennsylvania colonist John Dickinson was inspired to write verses about the colonists’ right to self-determination. Entitled “The Liberty Song,” Dickinson implored his fellow Americans to “join hand in hand” to answer “fair Liberty’s call.” This rebellious song had an immediate impact. After it was published in the Boston Gazette, people all over the city left their homes with whatever musical instruments they had on hand and sung it in the streets.

Why this immediate popularity? Well, this song was one of the first to connect the idea of American independence with music. It affected people emotionally in a way that dry political writing simply couldn’t. Furthermore, “The Liberty Song” showed Americans the potential for unity when they took to the streets together to sing it.

Thanks in part to individuals like Dickinson and their rousing messages of freedom, America finally signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Unfortunately, though, this momentous event did not enshrine everyone’s liberty. For women and African American people in general, life carried on as it had before – in subjugation and slavery, respectively.

Nevertheless, in revolutionary America, these marginalized groups also expressed their yearning for freedom through song. In 1795, for instance, a song appeared in the Philadelphia Minerva newspaper. Entitled “Rights of Women,” and set to the familiar melody of “God Save the King,” it proclaimed that “Woman is free” and should not “yield to slavish fear.”

20 years earlier, another American woman also called for liberation through verse. Her name was Phillis Wheatley, and she was an educated enslaved person. In a set of verses called “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Wheatley addressed the taboo subject of equality. She wrote, “Negroes, black as Cain, may be refined, and join th’ angelic train.” Incredibly, Wheatley was such a gifted writer that some of her verses reached the desk of George Washington and were published after receiving his approval.

Brutal nineteenth-century conflict inspired both Native Americans and white settlers to write music.

Some songs are forged in the fires of battle. In 1814, American colonists were still fighting with the British Crown to have their Declaration of Independence validated. And at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, on August 13, British Naval Forces were treating the colonists to a relentless cannon and mortar attack. Francis Scott Key, a lawyer from Washington, watched as the events unfolded. As night fell, he dreaded the destruction he might see in the morning. Had all been lost overnight?

When dawn came, however, Key saw through the smoke and fog, something profoundly moving.

Activists expressed their dream of a slavery-free world through song.

The American dream hasn’t always lived up to reality. In 1852, Frederick Douglass, a former enslaved person, gave an Independence Day speech in New York and spoke some hard truths to his fellow Americans. What did July 4 mean to black people in America? Douglass asked. What could African Americans divine from the celebrations, other than the vanity and hypocrisy of white Americans, who refused to acknowledge black peoples’ humanity? With stirring orations like this, Douglass and others like him were pushing hard for the abolition of slavery. Here too, the fight for freedom was accompanied by powerful music.

British abolitionists Julia and T. Powis Griffith composed this music for Douglass. “Farewell Song” was written to coincide with Douglass’s return to the United States in 1847, after he had toured England with his anti-slavery message. In response to descriptions of America as the land of the free, the song laments, “Alas! That my country should be America! Land of the slave.”

Music accompanied the struggles and triumphs of women and black Americans.

In October 1915, tens of thousands of women took to the streets of New York. Walking arm in arm, they headed down Fifth Avenue to Central Park. This was a march of celebration. Finally, after decades of struggle, women would vote in the next presidential election. Once again, music had propelled the fight for women’s suffrage forward.

One of the most famous songs of the suffrage movement was entitled “Daughters of Freedom, the Ballot Be Yours.” First appearing in 1871, this stirring protest anthem included lyrics imploring women to “sunder the fetters custom hath made” and to “yield not the battle, till ye have won!” A year after it’s release, one American woman fulfilled the song’s message.

The Great Depression gave birth to songs of both optimism and deep frustration.

In the early 1930s, America was down on its luck. Caught in the middle of the Great Depression, much of the country was without work and hopeless. Into this mood of despair stepped Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), who was inaugurated as President in 1933. Determined to keep his country together, FDR seemed to many to be a walking promise of better things to come. Notably, his march toward hope was accompanied by song.

In the cash-strapped 1930s, that song was “Happy Days Are Here Again.” It came to national attention when it was played during an FDR rally in 1932. This upbeat tune initially seemed out of step with depressed America. Nonetheless, it perfectly captured the infectious optimism of FDR himself, who always expressed confidence that the nation would lift itself out of its present hardship.

The Vietnam War sparked songs of protest, as well as conformity.

In the late 1960s, the Vietnam War was raging, and America was bitterly divided. On one side stood millions of young people who demanded that the troops come home. These were the children of the counterculture, a population championing pacifism and progressive values. On the other side was Middle America. These were social conservatives who thought the dissenting youths were disrespectful and shamefully unpatriotic. On both sides, music fed their strong opinions.

During this era, anti-war songs like Edwin Starr’s 1970 hit, “War” and The Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” boomed from loudspeakers at protest marches. And Middle America, the group that President Nixon would call the ‘silent majority’ who quietly agreed with the Vietnam War, had their own anthem. While not exactly a pro-war song, Merle Haggard’s country song “Okie from Muskogee” explicitly denounced those young hippies who wore their hair long, destroyed their draft cards and questioned their country’s foreign policy.

Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen represented two differing visions of America.

In 1954, at an open-air music performance in a Memphis park, something incredible was happening on stage. A white kid was singing the blues. Furthermore, with his incredibly versatile voice, electrifying good looks and outrageous dance moves, he was making them his own. That kid was Elvis Presley, and he would go on to become one of the most powerful cultural forces in twentieth-century America.

In many ways, Presley’s enormous success – and his terrible demise just two decades later – mirrors the fortune of America itself.

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Who should read Songs of America

History buffs looking for a fresh perspective
Music geeks seeking a deeper understanding of song in America’s political struggles
Social justice warriors hoping for inspiration

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Songs of America summary

Listen to the first key idea

What is Songs of America about?

About the Author

Early American freedom fighters were inspired to write revolutionary songs.

Brutal nineteenth-century conflict inspired both Native Americans and white settlers to write music.

Activists expressed their dream of a slavery-free world through song.

Music accompanied the struggles and triumphs of women and black Americans.

The Great Depression gave birth to songs of both optimism and deep frustration.

The Vietnam War sparked songs of protest, as well as conformity.

Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen represented two differing visions of America.

Key ideas in Songs of America

Early American freedom fighters were inspired to write revolutionary songs.

Brutal nineteenth-century conflict inspired both Native Americans and white settlers to write music.

Activists expressed their dream of a slavery-free world through song.

Music accompanied the struggles and triumphs of women and black Americans.

The Great Depression gave birth to songs of both optimism and deep frustration.

The Vietnam War sparked songs of protest, as well as conformity.

Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen represented two differing visions of America.

Who should read Songs of America

Categories with Songs of America

Books like Songs of America

What our members say

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