My Song is My Weapon: People's Songs, American Communism, and the Politics of Culture, 1930-1950

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University of Illinois Press, 1989 - History - 201 pages
A revealing exploration of the origins and development of People's Songs, Inc., "My Song Is My Weapon won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. Robbie Lieberman brings to life the hootenannies, concerts, and rallies of the time, paying special attention to the politics of culture of the Old Left. Her analysis of the communist movement culture, coupled with interviews with former members of People's Songs, sheds new light on Cold War America, the American Communist movement, and the experience of left-wing cultural workers.
 

Selected pages

Contents

The American Communist Movement Culture
14
From the Final Cornflakes to the Ballad for Americans Communist Musical Culture in the 1930s
25
This Machine Kills Fascists Communism Antifascism and Peoples Music during World War II
50
My Song Is My Weapon Peoples Songs the CPUSA and the Cold War
67
Songs of Labor and the American People
85
We Were Close to Changing the World The Peoples Songs Hootenanny
115
The Fight for Peace Peoples Songs and the Wallace Campaign
126
We Will Overcome The Legacy of Peoples Songs
149
Notes
167
Index
193
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About the author (1989)

Robbie Lieberman is chair of the Interdisciplinary Studies Department and a professor of interdisciplinary studies at Kennesaw State University. She is the author of Prairie Power: Voices of 1960s Midwestern Student Protest and coeditor of Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement.

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