9780674951334
When We Were Good: The Folk Revival
Robert Cantwell
ISBN 13: 9780674951334
Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr
Publication Date: 1997
Binding: Softcover
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When We Were Good traces the many and varied cultural influences on the folk revival of the sixties: early nineteenth-century blackface minstrelsy; the Jewish entertainment and political cultures of New York in the 1930s; the Almanac singers and the wartime crises of the 1940s; the watershed record album Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music; and finally the cold-war reactionism of the 1950s that drove the folksong movement, just as Pete Seeger and the Weavers were putting "On Top of Old Smokey" and "Goodnight, Irene" on the Hit Parade, into a children's underground of schools, summer camps, and colleges, planting the seeds of the folk revival to come. The book is not so much a history as a study of the cultural process itself, what the author calls the dreamwork of history. Cantwell shows how a body of music once enlisted on behalf of the labor movement antifascism, New Deal recovery efforts, and many other progressive causes of the 1930s was refashioned as an instrument of self-discovery, even as it found new agenda and styles in the peace, civil rights, and beat movements. At Washington Square and the Newport Folk Festival, on college campuses and in concert halls across the country, the folk revival gave voice to the generational tidal wave of postwar youth, going back to the basics and trying to be very, very good. In this capacious analysis of the ideologies, traditions, and personalities that created an extraordinary moment in American popular culture, Cantwell explores the idea of folk at the deepest level. Taking up some of the more obdurate problems in cultural studies - racial identity, art and politics, regional allegiances, class differences - he shows how the folkrevival was a search for authentic democracy, with compelling lessons for our own time.
Review:
"Robert Cantwell's amazing book analyzes the cultural forces that culminated in that moment at Newport, when [Bob Dylan and Joan Baez] sang with Peter, Paul, and Mary; Pete Seeger; and the SNCC Freedom Singers. But his book goes much deeper into American culture, probing the different ways people have tried to find an authentic American voice, distinct from high culture and uncontaminated by the seemingly irresistible forces of the entertainment industry...If the 60s folk song revival seems a mild, middle-class enthusiasm for the songs of the downtrodden, Cantwell shows it inquiring more deeply into the nature of American democracy itself."
Jon Wiener, Nation
Review:"[Cantwell] rewrites history with music, and vice versa. Diffusing a perfectly sketched generic, white, middle-class, suburban, postwar upbringing across the whole spectrum of American legend and experience, Cantwell pours old wine into a cruet that suddenly gleams with transparency...As he begins to trace the roles played by his characters--those figures dancing on the surface of 'Tom Dooley,' or hiding in its grooves--he makes the wine new."
Greil Marcus, Artforum
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Book Description: Harvard University Press, 1997. Paperback. Book Condition: New. BRAND NEW COPY, Perfect Shape, No Black Remainder Mark,shipped with USPS tracking and delivery confirmation, International Orders shipped Global Priority Air Mail, Handled with care and shipped promptly in secure packaging, we ship Mon-Sat and send shipment confirmation emails . Our customer service is friendly and we comply with all Abebooks.com return policies. Bookseller Inventory # 9003370 Bookseller & Payment Information | More Books from this Seller | Ask Bookseller a Question |
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Book Description: HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, United States, 1997. Paperback. Book Condition: New. New edition. 235 x 155 mm. Brand New Book with Free Worldwide Delivery ***** Print on Demand *****. In 1938, in Pick Britches Valley, North Carolina, a young mountaineer sang a ballad about an infamous murder for a visiting singer and collector of folk songs. Twenty years later, nearly every American within range of a radio was hearing about Tom Dooley from the Kingston Trio - and a folk tradition dating back to the days of the minstrel show had intersected with the emergent youth culture of the late-50s. How did "Tom Dooley" get from Pick Britches to the top of the charts in 1958? "When We Were Good" traces the many and varied cultural influences on the folk revival of the 60s from early 19th-century blackface minstrelry; the Jewish entertainment and political cultures of New York in the 1930s; the Almanac singers of the wartime crises of the 1940s; the watershed record album "Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music"; and finally to the Cold War reactionism of the 1950s. This drove the folk-song movement, just as Pete Seeger and the Weavers were putting "On Top of Old Smokey" and "Goodnight, Irene" on the hit parade, into a children's underground of schools, summer camps and colleges, planting the seeds of the folk revival to come.The book is not so much a history as a study of the cultural process itself, what the author calls the "dreamwork of history". Cantwell shows how a body of music once enlisted on behalf of the labour movement, antifascism, New Deal recovery efforts, and many other progressive causes of the 1930s was refashioned as an instrument of self-discovery, even as it found a new politics and cultural style in the peace, civil rights and beat movements. In Washington Square and the Newport Folk Festival, on college campuses and in concert halls across the country, the folk revival gave voice to the generational tidal wave of postwar youth, going back to the basics and trying to be very, very good. In this analysis of the ideologies, traditions and personalities that created a moment in American popular culture, Cantwell explores the idea of folk. Taking up some of the more obdurate problems in cultural studies - racial identity, art and politics, regional allegiances, class differences - he shows how the folk revival was a search for authentic democracy, with lessons for our own time. Bookseller Inventory # APC9780674951334 Bookseller & Payment Information | More Books from this Seller | Ask Bookseller a Question |
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