Listening for America

Finalist The Marfield Prize [National Award for Arts Writing]Not since the late Leonard Bernstein has classical music had a combination salesman-teacher as irresistible as Kapilow. Kansas City StarIf you want to understand American history, listen to its popular music, writes renowned NPR host Rob Kapilow. If you want to understand Americas popular music, listen to its history. Through the songs of eight legendary American composersKern, Porter, Gershwin, Arlen, Berlin, Rodgers, Bernstein, and SondheimKapilow listens for the history not just of musical theater, but of America itself. Combining close readings of Broadway hits like Summertime and Stormy Weather with a wide-angled historical point of view, Listening for America shows us how we too can listen along as America discovered its identity through the epochal transformations of the twentieth century.