NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A celebration of American history through the music that helped to shape a nation, by Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham and music superstar Tim McGraw“Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw form an irresistible duo—connecting us to music as an unsung force in our nation’s history.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin Through all the years of strife and triumph, America has been shaped not just … triumph, America has been shaped not just by our elected leaders and our formal politics but also by our music—by the lyrics, performers, and instrumentals that have helped to carry us through the dark days and to celebrate the bright ones.
From “The Star-Spangled Banner” to “Born in the U.S.A.,” Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw take readers on a moving and insightful journey through eras in American history and the songs and performers that inspired us. Meacham chronicles our history, exploring the stories behind the songs, and Tim McGraw reflects on them as an artist and performer. Their perspectives combine to create a unique view of the role music has played in uniting and shaping a nation.
Beginning with the battle hymns of the revolution, and taking us through songs from the defining events of the Civil War, the fight for women’s suffrage, the two world wars, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and into the twenty-first century, Meacham and McGraw explore the songs that defined generations, and the cultural and political climates that produced them. Readers will discover the power of music in the lives of figures such as Harriet Tubman, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and will learn more about some of our most beloved musicians and performers, including Marian Anderson, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, Carole King, Bruce Springsteen, and more.
Songs of America explores both famous songs and lesser-known ones, expanding our understanding of the scope of American music and lending deeper meaning to the historical context of such songs as “My Country, ’Tis of Thee,” “God Bless America,” “Over There,” “We Shall Overcome,” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” As Quincy Jones says, Meacham and McGraw have “convened a concert in Songs of America,” one that reminds us of who we are, where we’ve been, and what we, at our best, can be.
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From hymns that swelled the hearts of revolutionaries to the spirituals that stirred citizens to spill blood for a more perfect Union and the blues- and country-infused beats that aroused change in the 1960s, Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw form an irresistible duo — connecting us to music as an unsung force in our nation’s history. Songs of America is not just a cultural journey — it strikes our deepest chords as Americans: patriotism, protest, possibility, creativity, and, at the root of it all, freedom of expression enshrined in our founding document.
The civil rights movement couldn’t have happened without its music, and Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw have written a wonderful and moving account of how the sounds of America helped lead us toward what Dr. King called “the Beloved Community.” This book brings it all back for me — the struggles and the triumphs, the tough days and the transcendent ones.
Oh, I so enjoyed reading this book! From the beginning with the beautiful and inspirational Overture on The History of Music by Jon Meacham, I did not want to stop reading this history of America through music.
Music brings a deep association with the events and places I have experienced. When I hear a song I can place myself in a specific place and point in time. The Green Berets by Barry Sadler came out when I was fourteen. It had pride of country and was an appealing march. I bought a ceramic green beret pin at a drug store counter.
But the patriotic support of the war was short-lived and the backdrop of my teenage years was filled with anti-war music including Turn, Turn Turn, Where Have All the Flowers Gone? and Give Peace a Chance.
The music of my life tracked the social changes going on. The songs about women waiting for men became feminist anthems. Love of country was replaced by calls for justice and equity. Love songs were still popular, but cooler were the protest songs for social change with messages of universal love, peace, inclusion, anti-authority, and dropping out of the system.
The music of patriotism is inevitably the music of protest, Meacham writes, adding that history is not just read, but is something we also hear. And he notes that history is a continual process. He holds hope that we “can overcome fear, that light can triumph over darkness, that we can open our arms rather than clench our fists.” Music reminds the nation of where we have been and points to what we can become.
The authors begin with pre-Revolutionary songs such as John Dickinson’s 1768 The Liberty Song which rallied the colonies to unite in a righteous cause and move through history to Bruce Springsteen’s protest anthem Born in the U. S. A. Each song placed in its historical and cultural setting.
Over There was George Cohen’s “bugle call”
evoking the American Revolution’s Yanke Doodle in its patriotism.
“Johnny get your gun…show the “Hun” you’re a son-of-a-gun”
“And we won’t come back till it’s over, over there.”
The music discussed by Meacham and commented on by McGraw includes the well-known and well-beloved but also lesser-known songs that were influential in their day. They all represent America at a specific historical era: The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, slavery and abolition, the Civil War, minstrel shows and racism, WWI and WWII, the social movements of Civil Rights and equal rights and voting rights, the reactive rise of the Klan and Jim Crow, the cultural division of the 1970s, and the political divisions of the last fifty years.
WWI saw patriotic music like America, Here’s My Boy
with a mother offering her ‘boy’ to the cause…
and anti-war protest music like I Didn’t Raise My Boy to be a Soldier.
McGraw’s contributions are inserted in text boxes. He addresses the songs from a musician’s viewpoint and from a personal, emotional response.
Songs of America is a book of history, filled with stories that trace the complicated American experiment in democracy.
In 1938 Irving Berlin’s God Bless America was debuted on Kate Smith’s CBS radio show. Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land was originally titled God Blessed America and questioned the inequality behind the American promise.
History is an argument without end, Meacham shares. Americans have argued and fought, and dissent and protest continue, but this book offers the promise that “America is not finished, the last notes have not yet been played,” and calls us to lift every voice and sing in the continuing great national conversation.
I received an ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
What a gem of a book! To read, to see, to hear the history of America, right and wrong, in song. This is an unusually well-written and moving story; it’s about us and U.S. all at the same time — as intimate as it is majestic in scope and reach.
Now a days we take music and the meaning for granted. This book was kind of the history of music and some songs that impacted our country all these years later. The authors did an amazing job at doing research and telling the story of some well known songs and how they came about. Some of these songs I grew up singing and can’t ever remember where they came from. Like most some of the stories told in this book we were taught in school and others I don’t ever remember hearing. It gives me a whole new appreciation for those who came before us and paved the road for us in one way or another. The authors also manager to right a story or those lives and how their lives where impacted by the times and what took place.
I have always loved history and I feel like this book gives you a whole other look into the history of music and how poetry was just as important to song writing even in the 1700’s when America was found. With everything going on in our government it was a reminder of what our forefathers intended for our country, and how even some of this men failed at their best intention. Over all if you like music of any kind or like history I would recommend this book if gives you a whole new respect for both. I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley. I was under no obligation to post a review and have given my honest opinion.
Excellent audio book read by the authors, interesting facts and history, enjoyed the bits of music too.
Extremely well written study of music through America’s history.
good for music minded folks
“Song” is the marriage of text with Tune. This weak history fails to make the connection its title announces. . Poetry is a different study than song. Very disappointing.
Like with his previous book, The Soul of America, Meacham spins again the hopeful tale of times gone b, advocating that America has seen worse times than what we are experiencing today, or maybe living in the future. The previous book was riddled with excerpts from history, especially inspiring speeches. He does the same here, but through the stories of songs our ancestors used to express and record their feelings.
I enjoyed it, but have been teaching American history for 50 years and involved in music even longer. The first half of the book will please history buffs. You will find yourself saying, “Hmm. I did not know that.” often. Enter the hero of the second half of the book, Tim McGraw. Country music fans will begin to pay attention as McGraw enters the conversation with his comments as a more armchair historian. His views are as you might expect, folksy, average American, etc., but definitely from the heart.
With that said, one should not feel that I am being derogatory, for in his vignettes throughout, primarily the last half of the book, you will find the common man’s view of history, one who wants to stick his chest out a bit when the national anthem is sung, or smile at childhood memories of singing songs around the campfire, or patting one’s foot to join in the frolic.
I am left with an overarching query that I would love to ask either author someday. Why did they include what they did and omit other genres? There is no mention of the lifetime of Aaron Copeland, who sought to capture the American spirit through strains of Rodeo or Fanfare for the Common Man. The grand marches of John Philip Sousa are also not mentioned. Where do the ever-popular This Land is Your Land or God Bless the USA belong? Most of all I kept looking for the great epic Broadway plays/musicals that have led us through growing pains as we learned to accept diversity, e.g., South Pacific, Oklahoma, The Kind and I, and celebrat4e success.
Americans will find this book, as Meacham’s last one, hopeful, and assuring that our country has lived through trials and travails and survived and we can do it again. Historians will put it down about halfway through, while the rank and file history buff, or musician, will jump ahead to the 19th and 20th Century segments where our memories are rooted.
I am waiting for the soundtrack that McGraw must be making and am envious of those who live in the community with these two in Nashville.