America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Ninteenth Century [Hardcover]

Philip F. Gura (Author), James F. Bollman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 25, 1999

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Bollman's collecting passion is material on historic banjo manufacture and marketingAhe houses over 300 instruments, thousands of photographs, numerous patents, trade catalogs, ads, sheet music covers, periodicals, and banjo-themed "realia" in his Boston-area home. For this book, he shared his vast knowledge of banjo history with cultural historian Gura (English/American studies, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), who augmented his research using other public and private collections. Thus, academic scholarship and collecting enthusiasm have combined to produce a responsible, entertaining overview of the banjo as an artifact of 19th-century American culture, one that crossed racial, economic, and stylistic lines and had a real effect on later musical developments, especially ragtime. Recommended for large American music and popular culture collections.ABonnie Jo Dopp, Univ. of Maryland Lib., Coll. Park
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A landmark publication.

Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society

America's Instrument lavishly details the banjo from the pegface to tailpiece hanger bolt.

Journal of American History

A clear and extremely detailed account of the banjo in nineteenth-century America.

American Historical Review

[This book] makes it clear that the banjo is an essential constituent of what Greil Marcus once called 'that old, weird America.

Times Literary Supplement

We are given not only the rich history of the banjo but also a remarkable study of the American marketplace.

Southern Cultures

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (August 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807824844
• ISBN-13: 978-0807824849
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #344,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for those interested in the banjo's early history., October 16, 1999

By 

Robert F. DeVellis (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Ninteenth Century (Hardcover)

This is a great book for anyone interested in banjo history. It's well-written, authoritative, and loaded with wonderful illustrations. Even the physical construction of the book is outstanding. I had a copy on order before it was published, based on the strength of other publications of Jim Bollman's related to turn-of-the-century Vega banjos. I met Jim at his shop, The Music Emporium, in Massachusetts a while back. He told me about the book.

The book doesn't deal (other than a brief mention) with the later emergence of the 5-string banjo as the backbone of bluegrass music and the banjos pictured are all pre-war - WW I, that is. As the title suggests, it focuses on the earlier period of the prototypic banjos brought to America by African slaves, the evolution of those instruments during the minstrel era into the four-long-strings and one-short-string format that we all recognize, and their further evolution into technologically sophisticated and culturally refined instruments in the parlors of the wealthy. For many not familiar with the social transformation of the banjo in the late 1800's, this phase of its cultural history may come as something of a surprise. This book is extremely well documented, the product of the complementary skills and interests of its two authors, one an academician the other an ardent collector. Factory records, municipal directories, contemporary periodicals, patent applications, and other relatively inaccessible sources of information have been used to excellent advantage. You really get a feel for the personalities (banjo manufacturer and proponent S. S. Stewart being a notable and colorful example), the times, and significance of this instrument in the lives of people. Although this book is an authoritative text published by a university press, don't assume that it's dry or academic. It's just plain fun to read for people who care about the history of the banjo and its role in American culture. I strongly recommend it.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important book but not what you think it is., April 6, 2004

By 

Tony Thomas (SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Ninteenth Century (Hardcover)

If you buy this book because the title might indicate it is an overall look at the banjo, its playing, its musics, and its place in society, that is not what this book is or pretends to be.

This is a history of the physical development of the banjo and its construction and manufacture during the 19th Century. There are some small references to the different musics the instrument was used for, but not many. There is elaborate and detailed discussion of the main lines of construction of the banjos during this period. The authors also write well and thoroughly about the business dynamics of the chief producers
of the banjo during the 19th Century.

While this book is obviously the work of two of leading banjo collectors in the world and of interest to banjoists and instrument makers of all kinds, it is an important picture of America social and economic history as well. Someone interested in the rise and development of capitalist industry, fetishism of "the finer things in life" by the middle class, and how culture wars were waged in the 19th Century would profit from reading this book.

For the artistically inclined there are a number of beautiful plates of 19th Century Banjos as works of art. It is clear that the authors priviledge the decoration and physical beauty of the instruments as much as they do the instruments "playability."

This work is great in itself. I found it very readable and believe someone who did not know much about banjos would also find this readable.

If you are interested in the social and cultural history of the instrument to the present day, what you need is
That Half-Barbaric Twang: The Banjo in American Popular Culture Culture by Karen Linn.

If you are interested in the African origin of the instrument, its development from African playing styles, as well as the roots of contemporary "frailing" and clawhammer and much else about the musical tradition of the banjo, especially as used in traditional folk music try African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia: A Study of Folk Traditions by Cecelia Conway. Both books are available here on Amazon

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another "must have" for vintage banjo lovers and collectors, March 16, 2000

By 

Hank Schwartz "banjo & SciFi" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Ninteenth Century (Hardcover)

At last, another important book has emerged to stand with the few other necessary references on early American 5-string banjos.

Unlike the two fine Tsumura books which are primarily photographic essays of considerable magnitude, Gura and Bollman's treatise combines a highly readable and informed history with a remarkable collection of rare antique photographs and ephemera plus 4 lengthy sections of recent photographs of exquisite instruments and banjo related objects. Any one of these three aspects would be sufficient reason to own the book.

The frequently startling and personal photographs impart a very human feeling as we progress through the story of the evolution of the banjo in American culture. Amazingly, they represent just a minor fraction of Jim Bollman's immense collection.

Special praise is due Peter Szego for his magnificent photographs of the wonderful early banjos from his own collection.

I find it hard to remain objective as I turn the pages and imagine what it must have been like to pose for one of those Dageurreotypes, rudely dressed, banjo in hand, daring the photographer to capture my soul. And again, when I turn to that favorite Boucher or Fairbanks banjo and long to feel and play it.

Well done, gentlemen, and thank you!