In this unique and readable study, Jon Finson views the mores and values of nineteenth-century Americans as they appear in their popular songs. The author sets forth lyricists' and composers' notions of courtship, technology, death, African Americans, Native Americans, and European ethnicity by grouping songs topically. He goes on to explore the interaction between musical style and lyrics within each topic. The lyrics and changing musical styles present a vivid portrait of nineteenth-century America. The composers discussed in the book range from Henry Russell ("Woodman, Spare That Tree"), Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna"), and Dan Emmett ("I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land"), to George M. Cohan and Maude Nugent ("Sweet Rosie O'Grady"), and Gussie Lord Davis ("In the Baggage Coach Ahead"). Readers will recognize songs like "Pop Goes the Weasel," "The Yellow Rose of Texas," "The Fountain in the Park," "After the Ball," "A Bicycle Built for Two," and many others which gain significance by being placed in the larger context of American history.

Includes the proceedings of the annual meeting of the Society.

The Circle of Knowledge is an informative book that was designed in 1917, to be both inspiring and entertaining. The book represents the modern, progressive spirit which fits that time, in its forms of expression and its editorship. The purpose of this work is to answer the why, who, what, when, where, how of the wide majority of curious minds, both young and adult, and encourage them to raise further questions. Special measures were taken in creating this work to isolate essentials from non-essentials; to differentiate human interest subjects of universal significance from those of little concern; to deliver living truths instead of dead vocabulary; and finally, to bring the whole within the knowledge of the intermediate reader, without regard to age, in an acceptable and exciting form. The use of visual outlines and tables; maps, drawings, and diagrams; the illustrated works of great painters, sculptors, and architects all are used to give the reader the valuable and cultural knowledge of past and present.