The Folk Music Revival and American Society, 1940-1970
Ronald D. Cohen November 11, 2002 University of Massachusetts Press
ISBN #978-1558493469
Copyright: 2002 - University of Massachusetts Press
Back
For a brief period from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, folk music captured a mass audience in the United States, as college students and others swarmed to concerts by the likes of Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan. In this comprehensive study, Ronald D. Cohen reconstructs the history of this singular cultural moment, tracing its origins to the early decades of the twentieth century. Drawing on scores of interviews and numerous manuscript collections, as well as his own extensive files, Cohen shows how a broad range of traditions--from hillbilly, gospel, blues, and sea shanties to cowboy, ethnic, and political protest music--all contributed to the genre known as folk.
