[Dixielandjazz] "God Bless America, " "Battle Hymn..." books reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Playing Politics with America's Melodies
"God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song." By Sheryl Kaskowitz.
Oxford Univ. 210 pp. $29.95.
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song That Marches On." By John
Stauffer and Benjamin Soskis. Oxford Univ. 380 pp. $29.95.
by Lewis L. Gould
Washington Post, July 7, 2013
On the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, amid the trauma of that horrible day, members of
Congress began singing "God Bless America" on the Capitol steps. This moment of communal,
bipartisan song, however transient, illustrated the ability of a patriotic anthem
to bring Americans together as only music can do. Such songs become what Abraham
Lincoln called "the mystic chords of memory" that reverberate at ballparks, rallies
and concerts to evoke a sense of national wholeness.
Interpreting the meaning of songs in our lives has generated probing and insightful
studies, such as these books on two classic American melodies. These examinations
of "God Bless America" and the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" not only reflect the
growing interest in how songs have affected U.S. politics and culture, they are also
lively narratives in their own right.
Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" has the shorter chronological arc. Written for
a patriotic show in 1918 and then put aside, the tune reemerged from Berlin's trunk
in 1938 and began a journey that has never ended. Sheryl Kaskowitz, an independent
scholar, has constructed an engaging portrait of how the song infiltrated patriotism,
business and sports.
Kaskowitz skillfully traces the mixture of myth and reality that gathered around
"God Bless America" from the moment of its identification with the popular singer
Kate Smith. Berlin did not write the song for Smith, but he and the tune benefited
from the publicity she gave it on her radio show. In fact, Berlin and Smith's manager,
Ted Collins, vied to get credit for allocating the royalties from "God Bless America"
to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America.
The song also figured in the debate over American involvement in World War II. At
first, Berlin's lyrics spoke to disillusionment over the nation's participation in
World War I. As the threat of Nazi Germany mounted in 1939 and '40, "God Bless America"
took on new meaning, especially for its Jewish composer -- who faced anti-Semitic
criticism, including from the future chaplain of the Senate, Peter Marshall of Washington.
As the threat of war intensified, Berlin's words seemed to become an argument for
greater U.S. involvement n the fight against totalitarianism.
In the years that followed, "God Bless America" evolved into a tune associated with
political conservatism. Protesters against liberal causes sang it as a way of emphasizing
their patriotism and drowning out their enemies. Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald
Reagan made the song or its title an integral part of musical performances in their
campaigns and of their presidential speeches. Kaskowitz's treatment of these developments
is illuminating and thoughtful.
Some of the most interesting pages in her sprightly narrative concern the recent
fusion of sports and patriotism in "God Bless America." The events of Sept. 11 gave
the song new resonance, especially at baseball games, where it is still sung in the
middle of the seventh inning.
Telling the story of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" provides complex intellectual
challenges for two authors, John Stauffer of Harvard University and Benjamin Soskis
of George Mason. The familiar melody was first heard as a hymn called "Say, Brothers"
and went through several other versions before becoming "John Brown's Body" (about
the death of the famed abolitionist) and then, with Julia Ward Howe's lyrics in the
1860s, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." The authors have traced this intricate
process with wide-ranging scholarship that lays out the many ways in which the melody
evoked strong passions among Union soldiers during the Civil War. In time, the harder
edge of "John Brown's Body" gave way to the millennial sentiments of the "Battle
Hymn."
Stauffer and Soskis bring subtlety and depth to their treatment of the "Battle Hymn"
in the years after the Civil War and into the next century. They are attuned to the
currents of historical thinking about Reconstruction, the Gilded Age and the Progressive
Era, and they show how each period adapted a version of the "Battle Hymn" for contemporary
purposes. For example, Theodore Roosevelt and the impassioned delegates at the Progressive
Party convention of August 1912 used the "Battle Hymn" as one of the rallying melodies
for their program of economic and political reform.
In a more overtly religious context, 20th-century revivalists such as Billy Sunday
and Billy Graham employed the words and melody to help bring potential converts forward
during their crusades. With equal passion and moral intensity, the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s explored the many ways
in which the hymn could evoke and amplify devotion to racial justice.
By drawing these disparate responses together, Stauffer and Soskis connect the shifting
meaning of the melody and Howe's lyrics to the changing nature of American politics
and culture. The authors help readers understand how a pro-Union version of the "Battle
Hymn" with the title "Solidarity Forever," as well as King's use of the line "Mine
eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord" in letters to civil rights protesters
and at his rallies, derived from emotional and political impulses as strong and urgent
as the conservatism of Sunday and Graham. Throughout the political battles and social
turbulence of the '60s, groups at both ends of the political spectrum sought to surround
their causes with the aura of authentic patriotism that the "Battle Hymn" conveyed.
The ambiguity and multiple meanings in the song resonate throughout the complex story
that Stauffer and Soskis tell so well. Three days after members of Congress sang
"God Bless America" on Sept. 11, the White House incorporated the "Battle Hymn" into
the nationally televised memorial service for the victims of the attacks. Whether
an anthem that pulsed with Christian imagery was quite the right note to strike at
the time counted less than the evocation of American martial fervor. Militant and
millennial, open to contrasting interpretations about American values and exceptionalism,
the "Battle Hymn" resists any single interpretation or ideological pigeonhole.
These two books set a high standard for efforts to trace the impact of deeply felt
melodies on the national life. They are well grounded in primary manuscript sources
and reflect a mastery of the secondary literature on a range of relevant topics.
Because of the more linear nature of her subject, Kaskowitz is a shade more readable
and involving than Stauffer and Soskis are in their more academic treatment. Nonetheless,
any reader seeking to understand how music echoes through American politics and government
will do well to add these well-crafted and exemplary volumes to their reading list.
__________
Lewis L. Gould is professor of history emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin
and the author of "Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Creating the Modern First Lady."
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-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
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