What one would expect from these two. I skimmed a lot. Slap the names of well known people onto a book cover and it well sell. It doesn't guarantee the quality is good.

This book is written by a historian and a musician. The musician being Tim McGraw, McGraw gives his point of view from a songwriter of the musician side while the historian gives you the origins of the song. The song could be from the Revolution to the civil war, then moves on to World War one and mixed in there are also protest songs. You have “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” to “Happy Days Are Here Again”, one being the beginning of the depression and one after. You also have songs from the sixties protest songs and even the Boss “Born in The USA”. Most of the songs I have heard at one time or another being raised by older parents and much older grandparents. Most of the older songs I am sad to say most people will not have heard, but they were from a time in our country when music not T.V. or handheld devices were even around. This was the way people communicated. Woody Guthrie singing about the dust bowl and the people (Okie’s) migrating West. All of these along with songs people sing in their churches are our history as a Nation that we have forgotten. I enjoyed reading this book I hope others will also.

Tone deaf. Unable to “ carry a tune in a bucket.” Doesn’t matter. We sing. We sing in church. We sing at concerts. We sing in the car. Music is important to us.
Historian Jon Meacham and country artist Tim McGraw look at the role music has played throughout the development of the U.S. in Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest and the Music that Made a Nation. From the Liberty Song in 1768 to Only in America in 2005, we have relied on songs to make our views known, to inspire others to join us and our cause, and to ease the pain of unbearable crises. As the authors point out The Battle Hymn of the Republic was sung by one faction in our nation during the Civil War. I Wish I Was in Dixie land, by the other. These songs mirrored our debates and dissensions. These songs also gave comfort to their respective side.
Meacham provides context for the music of each period detailing the events, conflicts and controversies there within. McGraw gives the viewpoint of a performer and artist. He looks at the more personal effect of music. As he said singing Lift Every Voice and Sing helps ease the pain of spirituals and hymns.
This is a sweeping survey of music in America’s story. Many interesting pairings are discussed. Happy Days are Here Again and Brother Can You Spare a Dime are certainly diverse. There are many interesting stories told in relation to the songs that are highlighted. I found it sad to think that Meerapol wrote Strange Fruit because he “really hated lynching.” How sad to think that there was even lynching to hate. This book might just give you a new insight into what you are currently listening to.

This was such an interesting book, mixing history with music. I loved the alternating excerpts from the authors. What struck me most was how much the USA is still in its infancy.

This book is an excellent conversation on how music affects us all. The authors are experts in their fields and their writing reflects their complete interest and fascination with the topic. Music is one of the primary ways people connect. Whether at a back yard social, Sunday morning's sermon, or taking a cross country drive, we all share the moment when your favorite song comes on and you yell TURN IT UP. A great book.

SONGS OF AMERICA is a collaboration between Jon Meacham, the Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer, and Tim McGraw, Grammy Award–winning entertainer and country music artist. They have crafted a text that covers "patriotism, protest, and the music that made a nation." The selections cover all periods of American history from The Revolutionary War era to present times. It is filled with images such as Howard Pyle's painting "The Nation Makers" and Bruce Springsteen singing "Born in the USA." Unfortunately, SONGS OF AMERICA does not have any music – there is no accompanying CD, no links to online tracks and not even any sheet music to help readers "hear" the songs. And, as Ken Emerson pointed out in his Wall Street Journal review, lyrics are sometimes truncated due to copyright restrictions. There is, however, an abundance of interesting facts (e.g., about Susan B. Anthony registering to vote and participating in the 1872 election; about so-called forbidden verses of "This Land is Your Land;" and about the history of "We Shall Overcome"). Tim McGraw's comments are often highlighted in separate boxes such as when he describes "My Country 'Tis of Thee" as a beacon: "What we say as a people – and what we sing as a people – matters, for even if we fall short of the ideal, we've got to keep that ideal in front of us, like a beacon through the darkness." Contains over thirty pages of notes, an extensive bibliography, and a helpful index. We will have a copy of SONGS OF AMERICA on our shelves soon, particularly since our AP US History students are reading Meacham's The Soul of America.

Link in live post:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/songs-of-america-and-a-fiery-gospel-review-of-thee-we-sing-11561759345

Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw have crafted a book that no only educates and informs but draws the reader in with nostalgia. Weaving music’s connection to American History and showing how music has been used as protest, celebration and a commonality that brings us together. I highly recommend this to anyone who is a music fan, history buff, or just looking for a great book.

3.5 From George Washington and the American Revolution to the present, Meacham charts the music and what it meant during that time period. Music has the ability to make one recall a specific time and place, to elicit sadness and joy, pride and pain. When a song is played it sparks a memory, and often, at least for me, I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when the don't was played. Washington recognizes the importance of song, and used it to keep his men marching on. My country this of thee, written to the tune of Britains, God save the Queen. Even Bruce Springsteen's album, the Rising, is mentioned. Meacham narrates the explanation for a certain town, placing it in its historical context, and then Tim McGraw reads the song. Silly me, I was hoping McGraw would sing the songs. Alas, that didn't happen.

It was the chapter on the slave songs that most interested me, and though I have read other books on the subject, this provided me with further information. Sorrow songs, expressing the human experience of the slaves. "The highest joy and deepest sadness." What I had never realized it that many of these songs carried messages, codes of a sort. Tubman used a song to tell the others she was leaving, escaping.

Not a in-depth study, but a nice, interesting introductory to meaningful songs through the ages.

ARC from Edelweiss.

Elevator music, not a call to arms

Yes, I know this book is getting good press, but I was disappointed. Like good music, good music writing, must express rhythm and emotion in addition to knowledge. This text is elevator music, not a call to arms.

John Meacham and Tim McGraw appear to have chosen politicians and political events to report and then crafted a musical narrative around the events and political figures. This is backward, I think, in a book that is supposed to be the music that shaped the nation, not the people who shaped the events that shaped the music.

In the section on the music of American independence the authors seem more concerned with lyrics than melody. They scarcely mention the origins of popular tunes, including the marching and drinking songs to which the new and radical political poetry was set. This is a sad omission because before the era of recorded music, grafting new lyrics onto a familiar tune was the primary way that new ideas were introduced to a scattered and variously literate population. We adapt older songs today too, of course, but in the modern era of mass media and copyright police, lyric and melody are more often new.

Moving into the 1800s there seem to be a lot of holes in this telling of "Patriotism, Protest, and the Music that Made a Nation".

The Second Great Awakening of the early 1800s had profound effects on mainstream and unaffiliated US religion and the music that supported Christian worship. This period of religious and musical upheaval is not mentioned even though leading up to the civil war these new hymns and forms of musical expression were adapted to anti-slavery and martial messages.

In the civil war section, the authors discuss the songs of slavery and code switching (singing one thing and meaning another), which are the subject of extensive scholarly literature, but the discussion is abbreviated and weirdly bland in a way that does not emphasize song origins and importance, nor evoke the pain, hope, and cunning of the slaves.

I'm astonished that "John Brown's Body" is mentioned only as the tune on which "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and its later variations are based. "John Brown's Body" was composed by soldiers as a humorous song and was widely popular when Julia Ward Howe wrote the grand lyrics we know today. The authors here miss the opportunity to discuss the collaborative song writing style practiced in the early 1800s in religious and secular contexts.

"Dixie" is discussed as a popular song written by a white man for white minstrels, but the importance of the song during and following the war is glossed over in favor of a spiritless, politically correct discussion of how inappropriate it sounds to us today. The text does not reference the abundant literature and political writing on "Dixie".

Moving from the late 19th into the 20th century there is no mention of the labor movement, which relied on music to exhort workers to unionize and also in the fight for their rights. American labor music – from chanteys to railway yard and factory songs and on to protest songs – is fantastically political and it's crazy to leave it out.

I'm mystified as to why the civil rights section begins with the Cuban missile crisis and long sections on JFK. Here again, the authors focus on the politicians, not the songs. Of course Dr. King liked music, but the political songbooks of the era are not examined beyond a few hymns, singers and performances such as the DAR's racist rejection of Marian Anderson. There's no mention of the effects that the 1930s transformation of Negro spirituals into a more regularized, modernized gospel form had on it's usefulness as a political tool. And how did Bob Dylan end up in the civil rights section rather than the counterculture section?

The counterculture section follows the civil rights section, and is especially lame. It's called "Archie Bunker v. The Age of Aquarius". There is a strong whiff of revisionism here as the authors blatantly ignore the power and musicality of the free speech movement and anti-Vietnam war protests to focus instead on Richard Nixon and Elvis. Elvis, for heaven's sake, who never ever was a voice against the war (although he was a quietly powerful force in the civil rights movement). Several conservative songs are discussed at length – such as "Ballad of the Green Berets" and "Okie from Muskogee" – but there are only about 4 paragraphs, mostly lists, of the music of the anti-war movement. "Give Peace a Chance" is mentioned once, and then only to identify it as an iconic protest song. "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" ("Down by the Riverside"), a spiritual from before the civil war, isn't mentioned at all. (Try YouTube watch?v=bYe-bLaqhhY) There is nothing about government harassment of musicians and musical expression. (If you are interested, read about the musicians on Nixon's enemies list, FBI surveillance of performers, and the blacklisting of Joan Baez.) There is no discussion of the Weavers, the Staple Singers, John Pine, Sy Khan, etc. etc. etc. here or in the civil rights section.

The authors ignore the anti-nuclear and environmental movements and associated songs (Remember "Big Yellow Taxi" – "Paved Paradise" – "Little Boxes"?), but there is one strange sentence listing Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee" as a feminist song. "Bobby McGee" was written by Kris Kristofferson and is gender neutral.

When we move to the 21st century the authors take a somewhat unusual position.

It's fairly common for the political and music press lament the shortage political songs today. Toby Keith sings "The Taliban Song" and certainly Lady Gaga and Hozier present us with powerful songs about sexual identity, but in the larger view, recent years have not brought us political anthems on par with those of the past. Mr. Meacham and Mr. McGraw trot out Bruce Springsteen. I love Springsteen and acknowledge the class roots of his work, but one songwriter is not a movement nor does Mr. Springsteen's music cover today's range of important political issues. Where is the music of climate chance, poaching and extinction, #MeToo, Occupy Wallstreet, impeach Trump music? Or MAGA music for that matter?

In summary, I suspect that Mr. Meacham's and Mr. McGraw's politics are rather conservative (Elvis!) and I think it's spineless and unscholarly of them not to take up the challenge of boldly presenting the work of people whose political positions they disagree with. I also think they missed a great opportunity to show us how music evolves; how chords, progressions and modes shape our emotions; how songs of work and war develop and are used by persons in positions of power, and how they are subverted and twisted into political anthems by talented musicians and poets.

This book could have been so much more.

What a fun book! I enjoyed reading about the songs, some familiar to me and others not, which made our country. The format of the book was accessible, moving more or less chronologically from the American Revolution to the aftermath of 9/11.
I appreciated the diversity of songs discussed - songs by indigenous peoples, the spirituals sung by enslaved people, anthems sung by suffragists and civil rights activists, patriotic songs and protest songs.
I also enjoyed he sidebars by Tim McGraw, which brought a professional musician’s sensibility to the discussion.

Jon Meacham is a brilliant historian and this book would have come off as silly if anyone else had written it. Mr. Meacham was able to convey the importance of many songs to our great country without it sounding corny or preachy. I am a huge fan of his and enjoy his books along with seeing him on Morning Joe.

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.

What a brilliant idea for a book our American history told through nourish music.Brillant coupling Of Jon Meacham a Pulitzer Prize historian And Tim McGraw a renowned country singer.A joy to read so much to learn in the most entertaining way the role music played in our history.This is a book Inwill be gifting to friends,#netgalley #randomhouse

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.

The book provides a comprehensive look at music and its importance to Americans, all Americans throughout our history. From the Revolutionary War to the present, the freedom to express oneself musically has been an important part of our growth as a nation, as a people, as a culture. This book explores the music of our history, songs that chronicled our steps along the way. History, of any nation or culture, may not always be easy to understand or make us feel comfortable. But our journey is far from over, and as Tim McGraw says, “even if we fall short of the ideal, we’ve got to keep that ideal in front of us, like a beacon through the darkness.”