The purpose of this study is to stimulate the inception of a
corrective movement which will consider, evaluate, and preserve
those songs still remaining to us. It is, therefore, an introduction
rather than a scientific analysis, an impressionistic panorama rather
than a blueprint. While it has been impossible to achieve com-
pleteness in a work designed to open a previously unexploited
vein of American folk culture, I am confident that the picture of
our singing protest presented by the songs, stories, and descriptions
that I have selected as representative of thousands of others neces-
sarily omitted is not an inaccurate one.

For those good things which readers may find in this study I
am indebted to many people. To Professor MacEdward Leach,
who persuaded me to abandon my share of those inhibitions which
have denied these songs the scholarly consideration they have
deserved, and who supervised the work with a faith in its value
transcending my own, I am especially grateful. My gratitude is
due also to University of Pennsylvania professors Matthias Shaaber,
Sculley Bradley, Edgar Potts, and Wallace E. Davies, who read
the manuscript and offered suggestions for its improvement; to
Pete Seeger, Dr. Charles Seeger, Dr. Wayland Hand, Lawrence
Gellert, Irwin Silber, Dr. Philip S. Foner, Alan Lomax, and Dr.
Herbert Halpert, who led me to much material I might otherwise
have overlooked; to Moses Asch, for allowing me to quote freely
from his copyright holdings of recorded material; to the gracious
and ever-patient library workers, particularly those at Brown Uni-
versity and the American Antiquarian Society, who made available
to me numerous broadsides and songsters from the early years of
our nation; and most of all, to Aunt Molly Jackson, Woody
Guthrie, Harry McClintock, Joe Glazer, and the hundreds of
nameless composers who wrote this book, and whom I served in
the office of a sometimes presumptuous amanuensis. And of course
to my wife, who ministered with unflagging good humor to a bear
in the house during the composition of this book.

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