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Title details for Sounds of the New Deal by Peter Gough - Wait list

Sounds of the New Deal

The Federal Music Project in the West

by Peter Gough
Peggy Seeger
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At its peak the Federal Music Project (FMP) employed nearly 16,000 people who reached millions of Americans through performances, composing, teaching, and folksong collection and transcription. In Sounds of the New Deal, Peter Gough explores how the FMP's activities in the West shaped a new national appreciation for the diversity of American musical expression.

From the onset, administrators and artists debated whether to represent highbrow, popular, or folk music in FMP activities. Though the administration privileged using "good" music to educate the public, in the West local preferences regularly trumped national priorities and allowed diverse vernacular musics to be heard. African American and Hispanic music found unprecedented popularity while the cultural mosaic illuminated by American folksong exemplified the spirit of the Popular Front movement. These new musical expressions combined the radical sensibilities of an invigorated Left with nationalistic impulses. At the same time, they blended traditional patriotic themes with an awareness of the country's varied ethnic musical heritage and vast—but endangered—store of grassroots music.| Cover Title Contents Foreword by Peggy Seeger Acknowledgments Introduction 1. "Musicians Have Got to Eat, Too!": The New Deal and the FMP 2. "Out Where the West Begins": Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada 3. Innovation, Participation, and "A Horrible Musical Stew": California 4. "Spit., Baling Wire, Mirrors" and the WPA: Colorado, Utah, Oregon, and Washington 5. "No One Sings as Convincingly as the Darkies Do": Song and Diversity 6. "Ballad for Americans": The Music of the Popular Front 7. "The Folk of the Nation": No Horses Need Apply Conclusion: "The Varied Carols We Hear" Notes Bibliography Index | "Gough has produced an informative, useful, and notable work that sheds new light on the New Deal and the little-known FMP. He deserves praise for his efforts."—Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society


"Peter Gough has written a history of an unprecedented government venture, the Federal Music Project (FMP), with a focus on the largest territory in the program: the American West... Sounds of the New Deal: The Federal Music Project in the West is an intriguing narrative."— American Historical Review
"Those interested in the culture of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal will find Gough's book instructive. Recommended."—Choice

"For any student of the Great Depression—particularly the new deal—this tome will be a welcome source, reflecting a unique and rich time for American music."—The Journal of Arizona History

"In Sounds of the New Deal, historian Peter Gough helps to address a research gap long unwarranted. Gough's monograph is concise but rich in detail. Accessible and at points enlivened with some of the insider drama of personnel and personality, the book will resonate with interdisciplinary readers and specialists. It is fine work on a worthy topic."—Western American Literature

"An interesting and informative book about the WPA's Federal Music Project (FMP) and its influence and effect on the American West. Gough makes good use of sources to weave a passionate and driven narrative."—The Annals of Iowa

|Peter Gough is an assistant professor of history at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

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