Add free shipping to your order with these great books
A Chance to Harmonize : How Fdr's Hidden Music Unit Sought to Save America from the Great Depression--One Song at a Time - Sheryl Kaskowitz

A Chance to Harmonize

How Fdr's Hidden Music Unit Sought to Save America from the Great Depression--One Song at a Time

By: Sheryl Kaskowitz

Hardcover | 2 April 2024

Sorry, we are not able to source the book you are looking for right now.

We did a search for other books with a similar title, however there were no matches. You can try selecting from a similar category, click on the author's name, or use the search box above to find your book.

The remarkable story of a hidden New Deal program that tried to change America and end the Great Depression using folk music, laying the groundwork for the folk revival and having a lasting impact on American culture.

In 1934, the Great Depression had destroyed the US economy, leaving residents poverty-stricken. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt urged President Roosevelt to take radical action to help those hit hardest--Appalachian miners and mill workers stranded after factories closed, city dwellers with no hope of getting work, farmers whose land had failed. They set up government homesteads in rural areas across the country, an experiment in cooperative living where people could start over. To boost morale and encourage the homesteaders to find community in their own traditions, the administration brought in artists to lead group activities--including folk music.

As part of a music unit led by Charles Seeger (father of Pete), staffer Sidney Robertson traveled the country to record hundreds of folk songs. Music leaders, most notably Margaret Valiant, were sent to homesteads to use the collected songs to foster community and cooperation. Working almost entirely (and purposely) under the radar, the music unit would collect more than 800 songs and operate for nearly two years, until they were shut down under fire from a conservative coalition in Congress that deemed the entire homestead enterprise dangerously "socialistic."

Despite its early demise, the music unit proved that music can provide hope and a sense of belonging even in the darkest times. It also laid the groundwork for the folk revival that followed, seeing the rise of artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Odetta, and Bob Dylan.

Award-winning author and Harvard-trained American music scholar Sheryl Kaskowitz has had the unique opportunity to listen to the music unit's entire collection of recordings and examine a trove of archival materials, some of which have never been made available to the public.

A Chance To Harmonize reveals this untold story and will delight readers with the revelation of a new and previously undiscovered chapter in American cultural history.

More in History of the Americas

DK Eyewitness Alaska : DK Eyewitness Travel Guides Alaska - Dk Eyewitness
Great American Railroad Journeys - Michael Portillo

RRP $49.99

$20.35

59%
OFF
Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow

RRP $27.99

$26.50

Waco : David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage - Jeff Guinn
I Alone Can Fix It : Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year - Carol D. Leonnig
King : The Life of Martin Luther King - Jonathan Eig

RRP $49.99

$38.75

22%
OFF
Vanity Fair 100 Years : From the Jazz Age to Our Age - Graydon Carter
Life : My Story Through History - Pope Francis

RRP $34.99

$31.75

Vegas Gold : The Entertainment Capital of the World 1950-1980 - David Wills
The Motorcycle Diaries - Ernesto Che Guervara

RRP $22.99

$21.90

Long Road : Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation - Steven Hyden
Helmet for my Pillow : The World War Two Pacific Classic - Robert Leckie