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A chance to harmonize : how FDR's hidden music unit sought to save America from the great depression--one song at a time / Sheryl Kaskowitz.

by Kaskowitz, Sheryl, author.

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New York : Pegasus Books, 2024.

New Deal, 1933-1939.

Music and state -- United States -- History -- 20th century.

Folk music -- Political aspects -- United States.

Folk music -- United States -- History and criticism.

Depressions -- 1929 -- Social aspects.

United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945.

United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945.

9781639365715 (hardcover) :

1639365710 (hardcover) :

xxiii, 242 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits, music ; 24 cm

First Pegasus Books cloth edition.

Prologue: the Key West experiment -- Music as a social function -- In the slough of despond -- Musical Engineering -- Cooperation is our aim -- New wine in old bottles -- Delight in what it is to be American -- What are people singing now? -- Look down that lonesome road -- Government song woman -- We aint down yet -- Wayfaring stranger -- Let the people themselves make the music they need -- New ground -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index.

"In the mid-1930s, President Roosevelt and his New Deal advisors launched a radical experiment to help Americans suffering from the economic devastation of the Great Depression--Appalachian miners and mill workers stranded after factories closed, city dwellers with no hope of getting work, farmers whose land had failed. With enthusiastic support from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, they started government homesteads in rural areas across the country, an experiment in cooperative living where people could start over. To boost morale and encourage the homesteaders to find community in their own traditions, the administration brought in artists to lead group activities--including folk music. As part of a music unit led by Charles Seeger (father of Pete), staffer Sidney Robertson traveled the country to record hundreds of folk songs. Music leaders, most notably Margaret Valiant, were sent to homesteads to use the collected songs to foster community and cooperation. Working almost entirely (and purposely) under the radar, the music unit would collect more than 800 songs and operate for nearly two years, until they were shut down under fire from a conservative coalition in Congress that deemed the entire homestead enterprise dangerously "socialistic." Despite its early demise, the music unit proved that music can provide hope and a sense of belonging even in the darkest times. It also laid the groundwork for the folk revival that followed, seeing the rise of artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Odetta, and Bob Dylan"-- Provided by publisher.

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