Description
Edited by Edith Fowke & Joe Glazer
Author / Editor: Edith Fowke and Joe Glazer
Publisher: Doubleday & Company (Dolphin Books)
Publication Year: 1960
Format: Paperback
Condition: Near Fine — clean, solid, well-preserved copy with minimal handling wear
Binding: Paperback, square and secure
Printing: Dolphin Books paperback edition
ISBN: Not issued (pre-ISBN era)
Description
A classic and historically important collection of American labor and protest songs, preserving the voice of working people through music.
Songs of Work and Freedom brings together more than 100 songs that emerged from American labor movements, strikes, and social struggles, accompanied by historical context and editorial notes. These songs document the lived experience of workers and activists across generations, serving both as music and as primary historical testimony.
The collection includes songs associated with coal miners, industrial laborers, organizers, and union movements, offering a rare window into how music functioned as a tool of solidarity, resistance, and identity. This volume was produced not as a novelty, but as a serious act of cultural preservation.
Edith Fowke was one of the most respected folk-music scholars in North America, known for documenting traditional and working-class music that might otherwise have been lost. Joe Glazer, often called “Labor’s Troubadour,” was a key figure in American labor music, performing and composing songs closely tied to union organizing and social justice movements.
Together, their work helped ensure that labor music was treated as cultural history rather than disposable material — making this book an enduring resource for collectors of labor history, folk music, and social movements.
This is a Near Fine paperback copy, uncommon in such clean condition.
