Edition |
First edition. |
Descript |
296 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
Note |
Nonfiction. |
Bibliog. |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 242-284) and index. |
Contents |
The new situations -- People's songs -- Warp and woof -- Irene, goodnight -- Ballad for un-American blues -- This land is your land -- Twelve gates to the city -- Hammer songs -- This too shall pass. |
Summary |
"Following a series of top-ten hits that became instant American standards, the Weavers dissolved at the height of their fame. [This book] details the remarkable rise of Pete Seeger's unlikely band of folk heroes, from basement hootenannies to the top of the charts, and the harassment campaign that brought them down. Exploring how a pop group's harmonies might be heard as a threat worthy of decades of investigation by the FBI, [this book] turns the black-and-white 1950s into vivid color, using the Weavers to illuminate a dark and complex period of American history. With origins in the radical folk collective the Almanac Singers and the ambitious People's Songs, the singing activists in the Weavers set out to change the world with songs as their weapons, pioneering the use of music as a transformative political organizing tool. Using previously unseen journals and letters, unreleased recordings, once-secret government documents, and other archival research, Jesse Jarnow uncovers the immense hopes, incredible pressures, and daily struggles of the four distinct and often unharmonious personalities at the heart of the Weavers." -- Amazon.com. |
Subject |
Weavers (Musical group)
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Folk singers -- United States -- Biography.
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Folk singers -- Political activity -- United States.
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Folk music -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Blacklisting of entertainers.
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Genre |
Biographies.
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ISBN/ISSN |
0306902079 |
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9780306902079 |
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