I'm looking forward to this wonderful collection of protest songs I ordered from amazon. Years ago I had found a little red book of protest songs at Left Bank Books in Seattle, which I gave to a friend who was a union organizer at the time.
Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, not...
This will go with my new calendar -- 12 posters for peace and justice.
ReplyDeleteUtah Phillips died last year. A huge loss.
Here it is, but they don't show the photos -- some of them are really good:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IA37AU/
The cover is a gas pump with the words no blood for oil.
Michael Moore should have included Pete Seeger's "The Banks Are Made of Marble" in his "Capitalism: A Love Story." Looks like a good set, Gintaras.
ReplyDeleteIt does look like a gold box of music. Haven't seen Moore's new movie yet.
ReplyDelete