America Is Immigrants by Sara Novic

Sara Novic's book America Is Immigrants presents foreign-born individuals who came to America and had an impact on society and the world. She includes examples from all 193 members of the United Nations.

These individuals contributed to all areas, including technology, entertainment, industry, business, the arts and literature, medicine, cuisine, architecture, government, the military, and human rights.

Many of the contemporary individuals included were unfamiliar to me. Novic has included people who are not headline news, like the foreign-born doctors who saved President's Regan's life. Some are 'local heroes' like Mona Hana-Attisha, born in the UK to Iraqi parents. Mona noted the high lead levels in Flint children's blood. And others are internationally known, like Israeli-born Gene Simmons, Demon from Kiss or the German-born Albert Einstein.

"Pioneers" include Tammy Duckworth, born in Thailand; she served in Iraq and is a U.S. Senator.

"Builders" include Nikola Tesla, born in Croatia, visionary experimenter in electricity who championed AC current.

"Creators" include novelists Isabel Allende, born in Chile, and Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, born in Nigeria.

"Defenders" begins with author, human rights leader, and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, born in Romania.

"Movers" includes Grammy winner and philanthropist Rihanna, born in Barbados.

"Explorers" includes science fiction writer Hugo Gernsback, born in Luxembourg, who coined the term "television" and edited Amazing Stories.

"Thinkers" includes Ishmael Beah, kidnapped and forced to be a child soldier in Sierra Leone. He wrote A Long Way Home and Radiance of Tomorrow.

Novic notes that not all of the people in her book became American citizens. She also did not include Native Americans, whose contributions are significant but do not fit into her parameters. Also, African Americans descended from slaves are not included, as they had no "agency and the search for freedom and opportunity" involved with immigration.

The fully illustrated book has one-page biographies on most of the people but some pages have brief bios on people within a specific group.

This resource will appeal to a wide age group from junior high upward.

I won a copy from Goodreads. My review is fair and unbiased.

Songs of America by Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw

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.

Sinatra was one of McGraw's idols

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.

Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation
by Jon Meacham; Tim McGraw
Random House Publishing Group - Random House
Pub Date 11 Jun 2019
ISBN 9780593132951
PRICE $30.00 (USD)

All sheet music photographed are from my personal collection.

Fault Lines

June 17, 1972.

It was the day of my marriage. By our first anniversary, the date had another meaning: the date of the Watergate break-in.

As a girl, I had seen America come together with the assassination of President Kennedy and divide over the war in Viet Nam. The sounds of my teenage years were the chants of "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today," and the music of Woodstock. 

I finished my education, worked, had a child, sent him to college, saw him settle in work and a house, and retired against the backdrop of a further dividing America.

Fault Lines condenses history into paragraphs, each event eliciting a memory. I remembered it all. And the more I read the angrier I became.

In under 400 pages, Kevin M. Kruse and Justin E. Zelizer have compacted American political, social, and media history into a readable narrative. 

Movements arose demanding equal rights while counter-movements strove to maintain the status quo--the authority of white males. The conflict has not resolved to a Hegelian shift to the center though, just a rising antagonism and deepening divide.

They describe how cultural shifts and disturbances impacted film and television and how the rise of the Internet and cable news shattered the common ground of national news.

For me, it was a condensation of memories. I had to wonder how a younger reader would respond. The authors are historians and Princeton University professors. They have taught this history to students. 

This is a history book and not an offering of solutions; there are plenty of current books that address where to go from here. The authors state that the challenge is to "harness the intense energy that now drives us apart and channel it once again toward creating new and stronger bridges that can bring us together." 

Gridlock, a traditional Democrat Donkey quilt block by Dustin Cecil

But so far, those leaders who endeavored to bridge the gap and pledge bipartisanship failed. There is no indication that the old fashioned values cherished in the past--working together for the common good, obeying the rule of law and custom, communicating, finding common ground--are reemerging. Instead, political leaders are ignoring the will of the majority, engineering ways to disenfranchise groups, with special interest group money buying political clout.

We are told that by knowing the past we can plan for the future, understanding our errors we can proactively prevent the repetition of those errors. I know that America has gone astray many times in our brief history, and the countering movements arighted our ship of state. It is my 'glass half full' hope. 

I received an ARC from the publisher. My review is fair and unbiased.

About the authors:

Kevin M. Kruse is a Professor of History at Princeton University. He specializes in the political, social, and urban/suburban history of twentieth-century America, with a particular interest in conflicts over race, rights and religion and the making of modern conservatism.

Julian E. Zelizer has been one of the pioneers in the revival of American political history and is a frequent commentator in the international and national media on political history and contemporary politics. He has published over seven hundred op-eds, including his weekly column on CNN.Com.

Fault Lines: A History of the United Staes Since 1974

by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer

W. W. Norton

$28.95 hardcover

ISBN: 978-0-393-08866-3

Big Bang by David Bowman

My Sixth Grade class was in the library that Friday afternoon when Mr. Saffronoff led us back through Northwood Elementary School's ancient hallways to our classroom. We were being let out of school early. The president had been shot. As I walked home alone down the tree-lined street I was filled with vague and unsettling fears. Was America vulnerable and unprotected without the president? 

It would be years before I revisited the America I grew up in, hoping to understand as an adult the events that had shaken my childhood's sense of security--The Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassinations of President Kennedy and later his brother Robert and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Vietnam War and the daily body count on the television news.

At 600+ pages, I was uncertain I wanted to read Big Bang, but the subject matter was too tempting.

The book begins with Jonathan Lethem's essay on his friend David Bowman, calling Big Bang "docu-fiction," "an epic novel about celebrity and power in the postwar twentieth century," a "mammoth project" about "everything and anything" Bowman knew about postwar America. The Foreword ends by telling readers that all of the people and events are based on "true history."

I found a densely woven correlation of events and personages so intricate as to astonish. Bowen had created a literary, "six degrees" link chart of interconnections that is all-embracing. Of course, the Kennedys are central along with all the necessary Washington figures, but also making appearances are J. D. Salinger, William S. Burroughs, Howard Hunt writing pulp fiction and planning the secret invasion of Guatemala, Richard Nixon and his Checkers speech, Carl Djerassi and Robert McNamara in an Ann Arbor book club, Lucille Ball facing the McCarthy House Un-American Activities Committee...

Just to give you a taste.

Bowen suggests that after the Atom Bomb, the second "big bang" to change the world was the Kennedy assassination. It changed a lot of things, for sure. It set off a chain of other political assassinations.

The novel was a journey into the world that shaped me. I have to wonder what my son's generation will make of Big Bang, Millennials for whom the 1950s and 60s are ancient history?

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Big Bang
by David Bowman
Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date 15 Jan 2019
ISBN: 9780316560238
PRICE: $32.00 (USD)

Wasn't That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America

We sang the songs in elementary school music classes.

I Ride an Old Paint
Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill
Big Rock Candy Mountain
The Erie Canal
On Top of Old Smokey
Paddy Works on the Railway

And in scouts and church camp.

Michael, Row the Boat Ashore
Kumbaya 
If I Had a Hammer
Little Boxes

We heard the songs on the radio and played them on our record players and hi-fis and cassette players and CD players.

This Land is your Land 
Good Night, Irene
Turn! Turn! Turn!
Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
Tom Dooley
Guantanamo

Generations of musicians have recorded the songs.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone
Wimoweh
Sloop John B

I sang St. James Infirmary and Leatherwing Bat as bedtime songs.

On family trips we sang to Dangerous Songs, belting out Garbage and Beans in My Ears.

In a live concert at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia, Pete Seeger taught the crowd The Garden Song.

The music sang and recorded by Pete Seeger definitely imparted certain values. And that is exactly what Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, and Fred Hellerman intended. "Cultural equity and global harmony" were the suspect values lurking behind the Weaver's music. It doesn't sound dangerous, just mainstream liberal-progressive stuff. Except those values had led Pete and Ronnie and Lee and Fred to join the Communist party and although they had dropped out, they could not escape the association. And being pro-union, anti-war, globalists extolling the common man in those days was just as bad as wearing a big red "S" for Socialist.

Wasn't That a Time by Jesse Jarnow is the story of the Weavers and the early folk music scene, presenting their battles with the House Un-American Committee and Blacklisting.

It was an age of fear. President Eisenhower had denounced Communists as traitors and a threat. Idealists like Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Lee Hayes were attracted to the Communist party for its high ideals of equality. Events in the USSR disquieted American communists and they drifted away from the Party. But they held onto the values which in time became mainstream progressive liberal values.

Meanwhile, the Weaver brought Folk Music from square 'ethnic' music to mainstream, dominating the airwaves and influencing a generation of younger musicians, even while turning it into counter-culture protest music.

Music--Art--was a weapon, Pete Seeger believed. And his goal was to impact how Americans thought, through music, changing our values.

Although not strictly a biography, we learn about the Weaver's personal lives, their demons and struggles, the arc of their careers. We learn how their music changed as they struggled to walk the fine line between commercial success and staying true to their values. Pete left the group and several talented young men replaced Pete, but in the end, the group broke up.

So many folk singer's names appeared: Huddie Ledbetter, Josh White, Malvina Reynolds, Paul Robeson, Oscar Brand, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Dave Von Ronk, Alan Lomax, The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Alan Arkin, Will Geer, Holly Near--and of course, Woody Guthrie and his son Arlo.

Seeger became an environmentalist activist with the Clearwater Hudson River restoration. We loved singing with the songs on the Clearwater album--"You can't eat the oysters in New Haven Harbor, you can't eat the oysters that live in the bay, 'cause New Haven sewage is dumping down on 'em, if I were an oyster I'd get out today."

As I read the book I realized how deeply the Weavers music changed America. I remembered the last time we saw Seeger live, thousands under a huge tent along the Delaware River, hanging on his every word, being taught new songs and singing along with his standards. We felt a community of spirit in the singing. How many of us knew or remembered that Seeger had appeared before the House and was convicted of perjury?

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Wasn't That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America
by Jesse Jarnow
Perseus Books, Da Capo Press
Pub Date 06 Nov 2018
Hardcover $27.00 (USD)
ISBN: 9780306902079

read an article with Jarnow at
https://www.dacapopress.com/articles/a-talk-with-jesse-jarnow-author-of-wasnt-that-a-time/

from the publisher

The dramatic untold story of the Weavers, the hit-making folk-pop quartet destroyed with the aid of the United States government--and who changed the world, anyway.

Following a series of top 10 hits that became instant American standards, the Weavers dissolved at the height of their fame. Wasn't That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America details the remarkable rise of Pete Seeger's unlikely band of folk heroes, from basement hootenannies to the top of the charts, before a coordinated harassment campaign at the hands of Congress's House Un-American Activities Committee and the emergent right-wing media saw them unable to find work and dropped by their label while their songs still hovered on Billboard's lists.

Turning the black-and-white 1950s into vivid color, Wasn't That a Time uses the Weavers to illuminate a dark and complex period of American history. Emerging while a highly divided populace was bombarded and further divided by fake news--and progressive organizations and individuals found themselves repressed under the pretenses of national security--the Weavers would rise, fall, and rise again. With origins in the radical folk collective the Almanac Singers and the ambitious People's Songs, both pioneering the use of music as a transformative political organizing tool, the singing activists in the Weavers set out to change the world with songs as their weapons.

Using previously unseen journals and letters, unreleased recordings, once-secret government documents, and other archival research, veteran music journalist and WFMU DJ Jesse Jarnow uncovers the immense hopes, incredible pressures, and daily struggles of the four distinct and often unharmonious personalities at the heart of the Weavers. With a class and race-conscious global vision of music that now make them seem like time travelers from the 21st century, the Weavers would transform material from American blues singer Lead Belly ("Goodnight Irene"), the Bahamas ("Wreck of the John B"), and South Africa ("Wimoweh") into songs that remain ubiquitous from rock clubs to Broadway shows.

Featuring quotes about the Weavers' influence from David Crosby, the Beach Boys' Al Jardine, and the Byrds' Roger McGuinn, Wasn't That a Time explores how the group's innocent-sounding harmonies might be heard as a threat worthy of decades of investigation by the FBI--and how the band's late '50s reformation engendered a new generation of musicians to take up the Weavers' non-violent weaponry: eclectic songs, joyous harmonies, and the power of music.

In the Hurricane's Eye by Nathaniel Philbrick

The defeated British army trudged out of the ruins of Yorktown to the slow beat of a drum, surrounded by the American militia on one side of the road and the French on the other. The British General and his army showed their disdain of the Americans, giving their attention to the French. How could a barely clothed army of ill-fed and unpaid country yahoos defeat their magnificence? Only the French were worthy enemies.

And yet somehow General George Washington had achieved the unthinkable. Yes, he needed the French navy to do it. He knew this battle would be fought on water. And even if the French generals often ignored Washington's directive and did what they wanted, they were pivotal.

It all started with hurricanes in the Caribbean. The French were forced to move their ships to safer latitudes. The rest is history. The history Philbrick covers In The Hurricane's Eye.

Maps show readers the battles that are the focus of this installment of Philbrick's history of the Revolutionary War. There is no focus on one big personality, like Benedict Arnold was in Philbrick's previous volume Valiant Ambition. This is an ensemble cast of characters--British, French, and American.

But some things stand out. Washington for his ability to reign in his passions to keep a cool head. A favorite story is how Washington deceived the British by building ovens to bake the fresh bread the French army found a necessity on a route to New York City while the army headed south.

Readers are reminded of the plight of the common American militiaman, who after six years at war are released without recompense, worn out, to an uncertain future. 200,000 men had served. The escaped slaves who served the British with hopes of freedom were left without protection, starving and diseased, preyed upon by Southerners rounding up their property.

At war's end, America consisted of individual states unwilling to work together. They would not agree on taxes to pay for the war, and now they all vied for their own concerns. Anarchy threatened.

This narrative takes readers on a journey into an understanding of our past that will challenge the simplistic vision of America's beginnings encountered in school textbooks. Was victory at Yorktown all because of hurricanes? Or Washington's superior leadership? Was it because the French funded the war that Americans refused to support financially? Or the missteps of British generals?

Near the end of the book, Washington is quoted from a letter written to the French Admiral de Grasse: "A great mind knows how to make personal sacrifices to secure an important general good." I was appalled by the war crimes and suffering described in the book, but I was also inspired by Washington's ability to always chose what was right for his country. If only our leaders today would channel the Founding Father's vision of personal sacrifice and self-control, to do what was right for the many and the country.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown
by Nathaniel Philbrick
PENGUIN GROUP
ISBN: 9780525426769
PRICE: $30.00 (USD)

Over There: WWI Sheet Music

WWI songs reflect a spectrum of reaction to the Great War, from patriotism and support to homesickness,  mothers and children worried for their menfolk, and even pacifist songs.

One of the most well known WWI songs is Over There by George M. Cohen. An article from the Library of Congress gives the song's history:

George M. Cohan, a successful Broadway producer, playwright, performer, lyricist and composer, wrote "Over There" on his way into work. The headlines that inspired him the morning of April 6, 1917, were not ordinary. They announced that the U.S. had abandoned its isolationist policy and entered World War I on the side of the Allied Powers against the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire).

Cohan’s gingery song took its opening verse "Johnny, get your gun" from a popular American song published in 1886. He based his music on a three note bugle call. Although Cohan tested the song on a group of military men at Fort Meyers, Florida, without much success, the general public loved it.

"Over There" was first performed publicly in the fall of 1917 by Charles King at a Red Cross benefit in New York. But it was the popular singer and comedienne Nora Bayes who made the song famous. Cohan, it is said, personally chose her to premiere his song on stage. Bayes also recorded "Over There" for the Victor Talking Machine Company on July 13, 1917 (in a 78 rpm format).

On June 29, 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt awarded Cohan the Congressional Gold Medal for this and other songs.

Listen to George M. Cohen sing Over There here.

The cover illustration is by Barbelle. See other covers by Barbelle here.

Johnnie get your gun, get your gun, get your gun
Take it on the run, on the run, on the run
Hear them calling you and me
Every son of liberty

Hurry right away, no delay, go today
Make your daddy glad to have had such a lad
Tell your sweetheart not to pine
To be proud her boy's in line.

CHORUS (repeated twice):
Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drums are rum-tumming everywhere

So prepare, say a prayer
Send the word, send the word to beware
We'll be over there, we're coming over
And we won't come back till it's over over there.
Over there.

Johnnie get your gun, get your gun, get your gun
Johnnie show the Hun you're a son of a gun
Hoist the flag and let her fly
Yankee Doodle do or die

Pack your little kit, show your grit, do your bit
Yankees to the ranks from the towns and the tanks
Make your mother proud of you
And the old Red White and Blue.

CHORUS (repeated twice):
Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drums are rum-tumming everywhere

So prepare, say a prayer
Send the word, send the word to beware
We'll be over there, we're coming over
And we won't come back till it's over over there.

Over there.

***

Hooray for Uncle Sam, 1917, words and music by Della Williams Paine, is another patriotic rabble-rouser with a march tempo. Uncle Sam is featured in many songs. This one is particularly interesting for its invocation of God and how it imagines the whole world singing Uncle Sam's praises.

We are the boys of the USA,

We stand for unity always,

We pledge ourselves to you,

the Red White and Blue

and to you we'll be true.

We love each star and stripe to day

As o'er our heads you proudly wave,

We are your sons so staunch and true

And we are proud to fight for you.

Chorus:

Then Hooray for Uncle Sam

The bravest in the land,

We all salute you ev'ry day

The glorious flag of USA,

And may you never cease to wave

O'er this land of the free and brave,

United all we stand or fall,

We will be ready when you call,

For we are loyal o'er this land

Then Hooray for our dear Uncle Sam.

We give our all to you to day

As soldiers of the USA

And we will loyal be

on land and on sea,

Sweet land of liberty

To thee we sing our songs of praise

And to thy God our voices raise,

We ask thy help and aid today

To save our brothers o'er the way .(chorus)

When we from war come marching home

And lay our victories at your throne

You will be proud to see

the flag of the free

Still floating on the breeze,

So glor'ous will it wave that day

That other nations all will say,

Three cheers for you, the USA

May God your noble work repay (chorus)

***

America Here's My Boy was introduced in 1917 as reflecting "the sentiment of every American Mother." The prolific Andrew B. Sterling had a song for every new development from Ragtime to wartime. The music was by Arthur Lange. Here the recording here, complete with a bugle introduction and martial music. The cover illustration is by Andre' De Takacs. See his wonderful covers here.

There's a million mothers knocking at the nation's door
A million mothers, yes and there'll be millions more
And while within each mother heart they pray
Just hark what one brave mother has to say

America, I raised a boy for you
America, you'll find him staunch and true
Place a gun upon his shoulder, he is ready to die or do
America, he is my only one, my hope, my pride and joy
But if I had another, he would march beside his brother
America, here's my boy!

There's a million mothers waiting by the fireside bright
A million mothers, waiting for the call tonight
And while within each heart there'll be a tear
She'll watch her boy go marching with a cheer

America, I raised a boy for you
America, you'll find him staunch and true
Place a gun upon his shoulder, he is ready to die or do
America, he is my only one, my hope, my pride and joy
But if I had another, he would march beside his brother
America, here's my boy!

***

Just a few years earlier in 1915 the song I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier came out, with lyrics by Alfred Bryan and music by Al Piantadosi. It was the first pacifist anti-war songs plus it had a feminist bent. Teddy Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman hated the song and many parodied it. Listen to an Edison cylinder recording here. The subtitle is "A Mother's Plea for Peace." Read more about the music here.

My copy has a photo of Chel 'Toy of the Ching Ling Foo Co. What is a Chinese lady doing on this sheet music? The Ching Ling Foo Company was a traveling vaudeville magic act troop out of China in the last years of the 19th c and into the early 20th c. Read more here and here. Although Chinese were prohibited from immigrating to the United States Ching Ling Foo was considered an artist and allowed into the country. He started a craze for Chinese magic acts. 

The various issues of the song featured minorities on the cover: Chinese, Native American, and African America.

Ten million soldiers to the war have gone,

Who may never return again.

Ten million mothers' hearts must break

For the ones who died in vain.

Head bowed down in sorrow

In her lonely years,

I heard a mother murmur thru' her tears:

Chorus:

I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier,

I brought him up to be my pride and joy.

Who dares to place a musket on his shoulder,

To shoot some other mother's darling boy?

Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,

It's time to lay the sword and gun away.

There'd be no war today,

If mothers all would say,

"I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier."

What victory can cheer a mother's heart,

When she looks at her blighted home?

What victory can bring her back

All she cared to call her own?

Let each mother answer

In the years to be,

Remember that my boy belongs to me!

Repeat Chorus 2x

***

The boys were sent off to war 

So Long, Mother, 1917, lyrics by Raymond Egan and Gus Kahn with music by Egbert Van Alstyne, was made famous by Al. Jolson and it was advertised as "Al Jolson's Mother Song". I can't find a vintage recording but hear it here. Read about the music here.

Oh mother dear a little tear is gleaming in your eye
Your lips are all a tremble as you hear me say "goodbye"
The Stars and Stripes are calling now
On every mother's boy
From Maine to dear old Dixie
They shoulder arms with joy.

Chorus:
So long my dear old lady
Don't you cry
Just kiss your grown-up baby goodbye
Somewhere in France I'll be dreaming of you
You and your dear eyes of blue
Come let me see you smile before we part
I'll throw a kiss to cheer your dear old heart
Dry the tear in your eye
Don't you sigh
Don't you cry
So long, mother
Kiss your boy good-bye.

Oh mother dear each volunteer must say good-bye today
Some leave a love who may forget
When he has march'd away
But I leave one who'll not forget
That's why I'm mighty glad
For you're the only sweet-heart 
That I have ever had. (Chorus)

***

Once the boys were overseas their thoughts returned to dear old Mother. There's a Picture in My Old Kit Bag by Al Sweet .

A soldier boy was writing home to his Mother o'er the sea
Telling of the strange and awful sights in this war for humanity
He told his love for loved ones so dear
As he brushed a tear away
And through her tears a Mother read
these words for her alone.

There's a picture in my old kit bag, in a worn old leather frame
It's a dear to me as our grand old flag and I'll cherish just the same'
On the long, long trail to No Man's Land,
When my weary footsteps lag,
There's a cheer all the while in my Mother's smile
In that picture in my old kit bag.

***

For Your Boy and My Boy Buy Bonds! Buy Bonds! "Hear the Bugle Call!" was another WWI song written by Gus Kahn and Egbert Van Alstyne. Listen to a recording here.  War bonds allowed the government to borrow funds for the war effort.

Hear the bugle call
The call to arms for Liberty
See them one and all
They go to fight for you and me
Heroes we will find them
Ev'ry mother's son
We must get behind them
'Till their work is done

Chorus:
For your boy and my boy and all the boys out there
Let's lend our money to the U.S.A. 
And do our share
Ev'ry bond that we are buying
Will help to hold the fighting line
Buy Bonds
Buy Bonds
For Your Boy and Mine

Hear the bugle call
The call to those who stay at home
You are soldiers all
Tho'  you may never cross the foam
Keep Old Glory waving
Proudly up above
Praying working saving
For the ones you love
(chorus)

***

What Are You Going To Do To Help the Boys? Buy a Liberty Bond!, 1918, is another Gus Kahn and Egbert Van Alstyne song for war bonds. Hear a recording here. The lyrics

Your Uncle Sam is calling now on ev'ry one of you

If you're too old or young to fight there's something else to do

If you have done a but before don't let the matter rest

For Uncle Sam expects that ev'ry man will do his best

Chorus:

What are you going to do for Uncle Sammy?

What are you going to do to help the boys?

If you mean to stay at home

While they're fighting o'er the foam

The least you can do is buy a Liberty bond or two

If you're going to be a sympathetic miser

The kind that only lends noise

You're no better than the one who loves the Kaiser

So what are you going to do to help the boys?

It makes no difference who you are or whence you came or how

Your Uncle Sammy help'd you then and you must help him now

Your brothers will be fighting for your freedom over there

And if you love the Stars and Stripes then you must do your share.

(Chorus)

 ***

The super-patriotism of these last songs were not the only kind popular during the way. Some songs did reflect the pathos suffered by families whose menfolk were in harm's way. 

Just a Baby's Prayer at Twilight for her Daddy Over There, words by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young, and music by M. K. Jerome, 1918, has a Barbelle illustrated cover of a girl praying for her daddy. Hear Henry Burr sing it here. It is a sentimental and sweet song.

I've heard the prayers of mothers,
Some of them old and gray
I've heard the prayers of others
For those who went away

Oft times a prayer will teach one
The meaning of good bye
I felt the pain of each one,
But this one made me cry

Just a baby's prayer at twilight
When lights are low
Poor baby's years
are filled with tears

There's a mother there at twilight
Who's proud to know
Her precious little tot
Is Dad's forget-me-not

After saying "Goodnight, Mama"
She climbs up stairs
Quite unawares
And says her prayers

"Oh! kindly tell my daddy
That he must take care"
That's a baby's prayer at twilight
For her daddy, "over there"

The gold that some folks pray for,
Brings nothing but regrets
Some day this gold won't pay for
Their many lifelong debts.

Some prayers may be neglected
Beyond the Gold Gates.
But when they're all collected,
Here's one that never waits;

Just a baby's prayer at twilight
When lights are low
Poor baby's years
are filled with
There's a mother there at twilight
Who's proud to know
Her precious little tot
Is Dad's forget-me-not

After saying, "Goodnight, Mama"
She climbs up stairs
Quite unawares
And says her prayers

"Oh! kindly tell my daddy
That he must take care"
That's a baby's prayer at twilight
For her daddy, "over there."

***

After the War is Over Will there Be Any "Home Sweet Home" by E. J. Pourmon and Joseph Woodruff, 1917, has none of the bravado of the patriotic songs. THe lyricist instead writes about the somber realities of war. The composer's photo is featured on the cover.

Listen to a piano version here. 

Angels they are weeping o'er the foreign war,
Transports are sailing from shore to shore.
Brace heroes are falling to arise no more,
But will the bugle's calling every man to war.

After the war is over and the world's at peace
Many a heart will be aching after the war has ceased
Many a home will be vacant,
Many a child alone,
But I hope they'll all be happy 
In a place called "Home sweet Home."

Changed will be the picture of the foreign lands,
Maps will change entirely to diff'rent hands.
Kings and Queens may ever rule their fellow man,
But pray they'll be united like our own free land.
(Chorus)

The Man Who Walked Backward: An American Dreamer's Search for Meaning in the Great Depression

Plennie Lawrence Wingo is not a household name, although he went to great lengths endeavoring to achieve fame.

A string of bad luck had hit Plennie, thanks to the Depression. Nearly penniless, he hit on an idea. People were doing all kinds of crazy things to break records in a quest for fame. With fame comes money. It seemed as if everything that could be done had been done. Except...no one had walked around the world backward.

Plennie became obsessed. Every day for six months he practiced walking backward. He bought a map and sunglasses with mirrors to see behind him. He was given a cane. He put on his steel heeled shoes and a suit and tucked a notebook in his pocket, and in 1931 he left Texas, walking backward down Main Street on his way toward Dallas. He had picture postcards of himself to sell for income and hoped to find a commercial sponsor.

The Man Who Walked Backward by Ben Montgomery is Plennie's story, which is entertaining and interesting. He meets with great generosity and falls victim to scammers. He is a dreamer and a go-getter, fated to hit brick walls. He is harassed by cops and jailed in a foreign land. An affable man, he made friends who offered him shelter and meals and sometimes cash.

As readers travel with Plennie, we experience the misery and poverty of the Depression. We learn the story of America's growth through the history of the places he passed through, and how we used up and destroyed our vast riches.

Famous events and people are mentioned: the destruction of the buffalo as part of Native American genocide; the destruction of the prairie; towns that boom and bust; lynching and the Klan; Bonnie and Clyde and Al Capone; the kidnapping of Charles Lindberg's baby; the rise of Hoovervilles and the Dust Bowl; the growth of the beer industry and Prohibition.

And we travel with Plennie to Germany to experience the rise of Hitler, and across Europe to Turkey. It is unsettling how 1931 America is so familiar: ecological disaster, the destruction of the working class, the rise of a man who knew how to work the crowd, "tailoring his speeches to his audiences" and promising to make Germany great again. "People loved him. those who didn't were scared of those who did."

I found the book fascinating.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

THE MAN WHO WALKED BACKWARD: An American Dreamer's Search for Meaning in the Great Depression
Little, Brown Spark
by Ben Montgomery
On Sale: September 18, 2018
Price: $14.99 / $18.99 (CDN)
ISBN-13: 9780316438049

Benjamin Rush: The Forgotten Founding Father

Just reading the Preface in Stephen Fried's new biography Rush: Revolution, Madness and the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father I was shocked by the breadth and depth of Rush's accomplishments. It is hard to believe how ignorant we are about Rush's lasting contributions. I had come across Benjamin Rush in my readings on the Revolution and Founding Fathers and was interested in learning more about the man. Fried's book has made me a lasting and enthusiastic fan of this Philadelphia physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Rush knew all the big names of his time period. His friends included Benjamin Franklin, John Addams, and Thomas Jefferson. He encouraged Thomas Paine to write Common Sense. Adams wrote that Rush had contributed more to the Revolution than Franklin! It was Rush who pressured Adams and Jefferson to reconnect after years of alienation.

As a physician, he championed humane treatment for the mentally ill and identified addiction as a medical, not a moral, condition. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 when 10% of the population died, Rush courageously stayed in Philadelphia.  Many doctors fled the city along with anyone else who had somewhere else to go. The African American community came out to assist; it was thought they were immune to the disease!

Rush saw war and the disease and injuries that took lives. He triaged troops and was with Washington when he crossed the Delaware and at battlefields including Brandywine, Trenton, and Princeton. He knew that more soldiers died from sickness than the sword and created standards of hygiene for the military, including the first military buzz-cut.

Rush was a practicing physician. He lived before we understood viruses and bacteria, when bleeding and purgatives were employed. He was called to educate and outfit Lewis and Clark for their expedition. His purgative known as Rush's Pills included mercury, which has helped us track Lewis and Clark's journey! Rush thought up the circular surgical theater.

He was a lifelong educator, medical writer and lecturer. He founded Dickinson College to bring higher education to rural Pennsylvania and campaigned for free public education.

An ardent abolitionist, Rush supported the founding of the first African Methodist Church. He was a dedicated Christian who supported the separation of church and state while maintaining the importance of faith as a moral guide.

Rush knew that when the war was over, the real work of founding a nation would begin which needed to balance "science, religion, liberty and good government."

Rush married the daughter of another Declaration signer, Julia Stockton. They had thirteen children. Rush was a devoted and loving husband and father, but his illustrious fame and high standards were hard to live up to. His son became an alcoholic who ended up hospitalized, a 'madman' who was studied by the actor Edwin Forrest while preparing for his breakout role as King Lear. Another son, Richard, was close to John Quincy Adams and became his vice presidential candidate and he was commissioned to collect the James Smithson trust money which funded the Smithsonian.

Fried's chapter on what happened to Rush's papers and letters explains why he disappeared from memory until mid-2oth c. Julia Rush's most treasured and private letters by her husband were in the family until 1975 when they were donated to the Rosenbach Library in Philadelphia.

The story of Rush's life was exciting to read. As a popular history, I found it very accessible and quick reading. A Goodreads friend told me that Rush was her favorite Founding Father. It appears he was John Adams' favorite as well, judging by his response to Rush's death as recorded by Abigal, which Fried includes in the book:

"O my friend, my friend, my ancient, my constant, my unshaken friend! My brother, art thou gone? Gone forever Who can estimate thy worth, who can appreciate thy loss? To thy country, to thy family, to thy friends, to science, to literature, to the world at large? To a character which in every relation of life shone resplendent?" John Adams upon the death of Rush as reported by Abigal Adams

"...a better man than Rush, could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer genius, or more honest." Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams 

"I know of no Character living or dead who has done more real good in America." John Adams response to Thomas Jefferson's letter

I received a free ebook through First to Read in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

RUSH: REVOLUTION, MADNESS, AND BENJAMIN RUSH, THE VISIONARY DOCTOR WHO BECAME A FOUNDING FATHER
By STEPHEN FRIED
Hardcover | $30.00
Published by Crown
Available Sep 04, 2018
ISBN 9780804140065

Red, White and Blue Quilts

For the Fourth of July I am sharing some red, white and blue quilts.

Some day I may finish Little Hazel by Esther Alui or at least turn the center block into a quilt. I do love these reproduction fabrics!

In the early 1990s I made a red, white, and blue signature quilt for an exchange student from Russia.

Vintage embroidery patterns from 1976 inspired Bicentennial Memories.

The Presidents Quilt by Michael J. Buckingham and published by AQS was how I learned embroidery. I added borders of additional redwork patterns.

I added several First Ladies to the Presidents Quilt, which inspired me to design and make Remember the Ladies.

Vintage political handkerchiefs and linen towels were added to Dustin Cecil's pieced Giddyup block to make Gridlock.

It won 'Most Humorous' in my guild's quilt show.

I made the John Quincy Adams quilt for a traveling exhibit created by Sue Reich; the quilts also appeared in her book Quilts Presidential and Patriotic.

My husband's great-grandmother made this Turkey red and white Single Wedding Ring quilt about 100 years ago.

Stories of The Immigrant Journey

In Journeys: An American Story, seventy-three contributors from across the American spectrum share the story of their immigrant ancestors, demonstrating the greatness of America's roots in diversity.

The stories are grouped into categories:

The Changers, including Marlo Thomas, Gabrielle Giffords, Cory Booker, and Linda Hills the great-granddaughter of Andrew Carnegie.

The Lovers, including Alan Alda, Deborah Norville, and US Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao.

The Originals with an essay by Ray Halbritter representing the Oneida Indian Nation.

The Rescuers, including Marine Corps officer Zach Iscol and retired police officer Matt Tomasic.

The Seekers, including Dr Mehmet Oz, Rhodes Scholar Ahmed Ahmed, Governor of Rhode Island Gina Raimondo, and US Senator Barbara Boxer.

The Strivers, including Michael Bloomberg, Andrew Cuomo, Professor Joseph Bower of Harvard Business School, US Senator Tim Scott, and Hemings family descendant Ben Freeman..

The Survivors, including oncology nurse Nataliya Denchenko, Prof. Jorge Dominguez of Harvard, KIND founder Daniel Lubetzky, and Florida congresswoman Stephanie Murphy.

The Trailblazers, including Tony Bennett, Nancy Pelosi, author Lisa Birnbach, first Mainland China trustee of an Ivy League university Prof. Mao Ye, and investment banker and financial historian Eugene Dattel.

The Undocumented, including Dr. Richard Uscher Levine, Harvard student Erick Meza, and garment worker Helen Polychronopoulos.

The Institutions, including the American Ballet Theater, Monticello, and UJA/Catholic Charities.

The authors contend that the image of the American 'melting pot' should be replaced by the concept of a mosaic, "tiles of different colors and shapes indistinguishable from afar but quite distinctive the closer you get. A mosaic is only as good as its grout...used to bind and fit between the distinct stones...and hold it in place."

40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by  immigrants or their children, including AT&T, Procter & Gamble, US Steel, DuPont, Craft, International Paper, Nordstrom, and more recently Goggle, eBay, GE, IBM, McDonald's, and Apple.

The stories are inspirational and uplifting, and will make readers consider their own immigrant roots and the social, political, and economic factors that inspired them to leave their homeland.

All profits from the sale of this book will be donated to the New-York Historical Society and the Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation.

People are invited to share their family journey at www.journeysamericanstory.com

I found this book interesting on several levels: as a composite of American experience, a political statement, and, as a family genealogy researcher, as family history.

My own immigrant family history includes stories of fleeing persecution, seeking religious freedom, and hoping for a better life.

My Gochenour Swiss Brethren ancestors sought religious freedom, moving across Europe before settling in the Shenandoah Valley by 1742. My Becker ancestors were Baptist German Russians who fled increasing hostility against German nationalists in Russia--and to avoid being recalled into the Czar's army. My Ramer ancestor was a Palatine German who fled the continual warfare that decimated their homeland, settling in Pennsylvania, and then fought in the Revolutionary War. And my Greenwood great-grandparents left Britain a hundred years ago, my great-grandfather wanting a better life than working in a mine or the cotton mills of Lancashire.

What is your family journey?

I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Journeys: An American Story
by Andrew Tisch, Mary Skafidas
Publication Date: July 3, 2018
ISBN: 9781948122016, 1948122014
Hardcover $27.99 USD

from the publisher:

Every family has a story of how they arrived in America, whether it was only a few months, years, decades, or centuries ago. Journeys: An American Story celebrates the vastness and variety of immigration tales in America, featuring seventy-three essays about the different ways we got here. This is a collection of family lore, some that has been passed down through generations, and some that is being created right now.

Journeys: An American Story captures the quintessential idea of the American dream. The individuals in this book are only a part of the brilliant mosaic of people who came to this country and made it what it is today. Read about a Governor’s grandfathers who dug ditches and cleaned sewers, laying the groundwork for a budding nation; how a future cabinet secretary crossed the ocean at age eleven on a cargo ship; about a young boy who fled violence in Budapest to become one of the most celebrated players of American football; the girl who escaped persecution to become the first Vietnamese American woman ever elected to the US congress; or the limo driver whose family took a seventy-year detour before finally arriving at his original destination, along with many other fascinating tales of extraordinary and everyday Americans.

In association with the New-York Historical Society, Andrew Tisch and Mary Skafidas have reached out to a variety of notable figures to contribute an enlightening and unique account of their family’s immigration story. All profits will be donated to the New-York Historical Society and the Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation.

Featuring Essays by:
Alan Alda
Arlene Alda
Tony Bennett
Cory Booker
Michael Bloomberg
Barbara Boxer
Elaine Chao
Andrew Cuomo
Ray Halbritter
Jon Huntsman
Wes Moore
Stephanie Murphy
Deborah Norville
Dr. Oz
Nancy Pelosi
Gina Raimondo
Tim Scott
Jane Swift
Marlo Thomas
And many more!