Songs of Protest

SONGS OF PROTEST

Rhino Records CD (1991), $11.98.

WORLD WAR I SONGS

Volume 1 of 2 from Mark Best, www.besmark.com/ww1b.html. $11.95 for tape, $16.96 for CD, plus $3.95 shipping/handling. (The two songs mentioned below also can be downloaded from http://nfo.net/usa/ww1.html.)

One of the current lies that has been repeated so often that many assume it true is that Vietnam was the only war Americans protested. Even when history textbooks do not state this explicitly, they often make the point through silence about protests except when covering the Vietnam War.

I did the following while teaching high school American history in an inner city magnet school in Oklahoma City. I asked how many had heard or believed that the only protested war was the Vietnam War. Many held their hands high. I asked students to remember back to our study of World War I and to offer statements of what they had learned. After this opener, I handed out the lyrics (available from Mark Best) to two World War I era songs, "I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier" and "Stay Down Here Where You Belong." We discussed the importance of songs to people. We discussed the different technology available then to record music. We played the songs. We discussed who fights wars (the young and the poor).

I passed around the excellent insert from the CD as selections from Songs of Protest played: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Eve of Destruction," "With God on Our Side," "Universal Soldier, "It's Good News Week," and "War." The students really got into the final selection and were singing and dancing along. This disturbed the local conservative teacher nearby--the song's content more than the loudness of the class. Teaching peace is a risky business. My personal favorite is "With God on our Side," sung by Manfred Mann. The song summarizes our glorious, violent, and conquering history well. It also captures our current political landscape, "for you don't ask questions when God is on your side."

I gave the students a choice of projects. They could write the lyrics to a song of their own, either promoting or protesting war, or write an analysis of two songs from two different periods, placing each song in context and explaining similarities or differences.

--Michael W. Simpson

University of Wisconsin-Madison

COPYRIGHT 2004 Center for Critical Education, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group