Book Review
Dec. 27th, 2016 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America
by Raymond Arsenault
This book is a biography of an event, Marian Anderson's landmark 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial. The concert was the first large public event held at the Lincoln Memorial, and the choice of location was precipitated by the Daughters of the American Revolution and their racially motivated refusal to let Anderson perform in their Constitution hall, despite the fact that Anderson was one of the most popular and renowned classical singers of the day. Arsenault also provides us with the rest of Anderson's life story as well as an examination of the ways in which the musical world was segregated in the 1930s as background for the 1939 concert.
The Sound of Freedom was extremely interesting. I did not know much about the 1939 concert before, and Arsenault does a great job of portraying the way art and politics converged around it. Arsenault does not mince words or pull punches when discussing the racist policies and practices of pre-war America, which gives the events leading up to the Lincoln Memorial performance more resonance and meaning.
by Raymond Arsenault
This book is a biography of an event, Marian Anderson's landmark 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial. The concert was the first large public event held at the Lincoln Memorial, and the choice of location was precipitated by the Daughters of the American Revolution and their racially motivated refusal to let Anderson perform in their Constitution hall, despite the fact that Anderson was one of the most popular and renowned classical singers of the day. Arsenault also provides us with the rest of Anderson's life story as well as an examination of the ways in which the musical world was segregated in the 1930s as background for the 1939 concert.
The Sound of Freedom was extremely interesting. I did not know much about the 1939 concert before, and Arsenault does a great job of portraying the way art and politics converged around it. Arsenault does not mince words or pull punches when discussing the racist policies and practices of pre-war America, which gives the events leading up to the Lincoln Memorial performance more resonance and meaning.
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Date: 2016-12-28 12:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-28 10:25 pm (UTC)I'm going to be doing a display about the 1939 concert in my library for Black History Month in February.
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Date: 2016-12-29 04:07 pm (UTC)