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The University of North Carolina Press
400 pp., 71/4 x 11, 97 color and 156 b&w illus., notes, bibl., index
Published: September 1999
The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century
Winner of a 2000 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Special Citation, American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers
This handsome illustrated history traces the transformation of the banjo from primitive folk instrument to sophisticated musical machine and, in the process, offers a unique view of the music business in nineteenth-century America.
Philip Gura and James Bollman chart the evolution of "America's instrument," the five-stringed banjo, from its origins in the gourd instruments of enslaved Africans brought to the New World in the seventeenth century through its rise to the very pinnacle of American popular culture at the turn of the twentieth century. Throughout, they look at how banjo craftsmen and manufacturers developed, built, and marketed their products to an American public immersed in the production and consumption of popular music.
With over 250 illustrations--including rare period photographs, minstrel broadsides, sheet music covers, and banjo tutors and tune books--America's Instrument brings to life a fascinating aspect of American cultural history.
"This magnificent . . . book traces the banjo from its origin among slaves attempting to replicate native West African instruments to its central place in American popular culture in the last half of the nineteenth century."
--Boston Globe
"This splendid book . . . is a landmark publication."
--Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society
"America's Instrument is a fascinating, eye-opening read. . . . That this handsome book belongs in the library of every banjo enthusiast barely needs stating, but it is also a gem for anyone interested in folk music, in American studies, and in the development of American popular culture."
--Missouri Folklore Society Journal
"America's Instrument reviews extant banjo history firmly, without antagonism. [The authors] prune from their own new research all but the banjo's technical progress. They watch the banjo change from an African gourd with a neck attached to a twentieth-century machine-made tool able to bounce its yawp off the back of the largest halls. . . . They have written an obsessive book for banjo fanatics, rich in living banjo culture. . . . America's Instrument lavishly details the banjo from the pegface to tailpiece hanger bolt."
--Journal of American History
"Like a Martin guitar, Philip Gura's book is a pleasure to hold and behold; the prose is accessible and engaging. The illustrations alone . . . reward casual browsing as well as close study."
--Business History Review
"American's Instrument is now one of those 'must have' items for 'banjo people.' However, this is a very enjoyable book to look through for anyone, largely because so many incredible photos are of people, not just banjos, staring off the page at us from a century and a half ago. . . . Gura and Bollman have contributed an incredible document to the history of the banjo, and I for one deeply appreciate their effort."
--BŽla Fleck, for Mississippi Quarterly
Cloth: $49.95
© 2007 The University of North Carolina Press
116 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808
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