POLITICAL FOLK MUSIC IN AMERICA
FROM ITS ORIGINS TO BOB DYLAN

        Many American folk singers have tried to leave their world a better place by writing songs of social protest. Musicians like Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez sang with fierce moral voices to transform what they saw as an uncaring society. This provocative work examines both the long tradition of folk music in its American political context and the lives of those troubadours who wrote its most enduring songs.

By Lawrence J. Epstein, spring/summer 2010 McFarland, 204 pages, softcover. ISBN 978-0786448623.