American Song and Struggle from World War II to MAGA

Will Kaufman is the author of American Song and Struggle from Columbus to World War II (Cambridge University Press, 2022), which won the 2023 Choice 360 Award for the best academic title in music. Recognized internationally as the world's leading authority on Woody Guthrie, he has written three books on the American balladeer: Woody Guthrie, American Radical (2011), Woody Guthrie's Modern World Blues (2017), and Mapping Woody Guthrie (2019). His other works include Singing for Peace: Antiwar Songs in American History (co-authored with Ronald D. Cohen, 2015), American Culture in the 1970s (2009), and The Civil War in American Culture (2006).

• List of illustrations; Preface; Introduction: the severed head of Orpheus; 1. Flip-flop (1938–41); 2. Amazing grace (1941–45); 3. All that was solid (1946–49); 4. Tic, tic, tic (1950–55); 5. Rumble (1953–59); 6. Hard rain (1960–64); 7. Too much love (1963–69); 8. What is truth? (1969–76); 9. The wolf and the lamb (1976–85); 10. American sound (1984–89); 11. Something to make you change your mind (1985–99); 12. Shut up and sing (2000–08); 13. Cold cold feeling (2009–16); 14. Wrecking ball (2015–26); Conclusion: to whomever finds this message; Acknowledgments; General notes and sources; Song notes and sources; Index; Author's note on errata.

'It didn't begin with Bob Dylan or even his inspiration, the great Woody Guthrie. As Will Kaufman's previous volume makes clear, song and struggle in America can be traced as far back as the Indigenous people resisting the European conquest. But his second volume beautifully demonstrates how a good tune and a strong message can still move us, make us ponder or think again, reassure us, and let us know that we belong to the human race in commonality. The song brings us the news that we are not alone out there. So if singing is sometimes all we can do in the face of overwhelming greed and the abuse of power, then let us sing and know that we are not alone out there.' Ralph McTell