Wood Early American Music Summary

How is the author differentiating himself/herself from other authors who have explored the same problem before or is it a completely new problem? The topic of music and its’ unifying effect in the early days of the American Republic has not been analyzed in great detail. Instead, historians have primarily focused on early American music as a divisive political tool. However, as Wood methodically points out, music was viewed as a valuable, unifying instrument in early American politics. Wood argues that political songs had a potentially more integrative function in the early years of the American Republic. Primarily influenced by European notions of music and harmony, America’s political leaders at both the national and the local level used the idea of harmony and the practice of shared public singing as a means for explaining how their country could remain united despite its many internal divisions. …show more content…
What are the sources that the author uses to make his or her argument? The author extensively relies on primary sources to support her thesis and argument. She extensively examines the content of several newspapers and their depiction of early American music and patriotic celebrations. Furthermore, she analyzes the speeches and letters of America’s founding political leaders, particularly Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison.. Wood’s reliance on primary resources is primarily due to the fact that her topic has not yet been discussed in great detail by other historians. She directly mentions only three historians in her article: E. P. Thompson, David Waldstreicher, and Mark. M. Smith. However, if you look at her footnotes, she utilizes several secondary sources, particularly journal articles and academic books pertaining to music from the eighteenth-century time