"Songs Of America..." - a wonderful book on American history and music written by Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw.

Hey 😉
As you know, I usually write about music, Country artists. But today I'm going to write about the book I've just finished reading and I think it's worth writing about. "Songs of America. Patriotism, Protest, And The Music That Made A Nation", which was written by Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw and published in 2019.


Since I became a country fan, I have been interested only in this genre of music and nothing more. The only thing I knew about this country was from the TV news. It's only now that I've read this publication that I realized that my favorite kind of music was only created by the various historical events that shaped America today.
More than a week ago I found Songs Of America in one of the Polish online shops (which is very rare because Tim [unfortunately] is not known in my country 😔). I decided to buy this book and another one written by the artist, notwithstanding the fact that they are written in English 😏. I thought that I listen to Country music all the time, I watch different movies without translation, I had good grades from English at school, etc. I can do it.  But when I started reading it, I realized that I wasn't as good as I thought and I used a translator quite often. That's why it took me a dozen or so days to read it, although the advantage of this situation is that I have enriched my vocabulary in the language.
Coming back to the topic of the post, this is a book that presents the history of America from the US Independence War in 1775-1783 to the Second World War (there is also a reference to the attack on Poland) and the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. This publication is not only about history, but also about the music that was created in a given period of the country. Reading it you can see what changes took place in its creation: from war songs in the eighteenth century to songs composed by American-African slaves/citizens, to contemporary songs (often of a political nature, especially after September 11, 2001).
I never thought that music and history could combine, and thanks to this book I understood that this was happening. The emotions of people (sorrow, pain, fear, love for the country, pride, hope) who took part in various and significant historical events were conveyed through music. I think that it was worth taking the time to read this publication, because thanks to it I got into the history of America, which is very interesting. I also got to know a lot of music that is still present in US culture, even though it was written many centuries ago.

Jon Meacham - a well-known and respected American [historical] writer, Pulitzer Prize winner (award for outstanding journalism), a private friend of Tim McGraw.

Tim McGraw - a recognized artist of Country music, has released 15 albums (over a dozen achieved No. 1 on music lists), author of several books.

I've written a little bit, but I wanted to share with you my thoughts on this book 😀.

JP.

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