To everything there is a season
Subtitle: Pete Seeger and the power of song
By: Allan M. Winkler.
Series: New narratives in American history
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 223
ISBN-13: 9780195324822; 9780195324815
Subjects: Seeger, Pete, -- 1919-; Folk singers -- United States -- Biography; Popular music -- United States -- History and criticism; Protest movements -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Popular music -- Social aspects -- United States
Genres: Biography.
Description: For over half of a century, Pete Seeger's life and music cut across the major issues of the day. A tireless supporter of union organization in the 1930s and 1940s, he joined the Communist Party, performing his songs with banjo and guitar accompaniment to promote worker solidarity. He sang out against American involvement in World War II in the early 1940s, only to change his tune after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He enlisted in the Army and, still singing, served overseas in the South Pacific. In the 1950s, he found himself under attack during the Red Scare for his radical past. He narrowly escaped a long jail term for refusing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, when his contempt conviction was thrown out on a technicality. In the 1960s, he became the minstrel of the civil rights movement, focusing its energy with songs that inspired protestors and challenged the nation's patterns of racial discrimination. Toward the end of the decade, he turned his musical talents to resisting the war in Vietnam, and again drew fire from those who attacked his dissent as treason. Finally, in the 1970s, he lent his voice to the growing environmental movement by leading the drive to clean up the Hudson River, which flowed almost literally through his backyard in New York State. His life reflected the turbulence of his times as his songs sounded the spirit of the issues that he felt mattered most.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Talking union; title: If I had a hammer; title: Where have all the flowers gone?; title: We shall overcome; title: Waist deep in the big muddy; title: Sailing down my golden river.