"...vivid biography of the song that marches on...engaging...an entertaining tale" --Wall Street Journal
"Stauffer and Soskis bring subtlety and depth to their treatment of the Battle Hymn in the years after the Civil War and into the next century....The ambiguity and multiple meanings in the song resonate throughout the complex story that Stauffer and Soskis tell so well." --
Washington Post "the first comprehensive look at the history of the tune and titular verse" --
Library Journal "Stauffer and Soskis's study breathes new life into Civil War scholarship...The Battle Hymn of the Republic is beautifully rendered history. Full of surprising twists and turns, it should be on the shelf of everyone who has sung the song." --
The Christian Century "...there was a moment when the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" nearly did become our national anthem. This discovery is one of hundreds of insights gleaned from John Stauffer and Benjamin Soskis's book,
The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song That Marches On." --
Christianity Today "John Stauffer and Ben Soskis's
The Battle Hymn of the Republic is not only a brilliant and magisterial book but is the best and most impressive work in American history I have read in recent years. It uses popular songs to give a profound reimagining of America history from the Civil War to the present. Few works since the writings of Perry Miller have shown such a subtle grasp of the centrality of religion in American culture. Few if any collective biographies have insightfully dealt with such a range of figures as John Brown, Julia Ward Howe, Teddy Roosevelt, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and Martin Luther King Jr." --David Brion Davis, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University
"The sheer ubiquity of the 'Battle Hymn' makes it almost common cultural coin in America. This marvelous, textured book brilliantly illuminates the origins and ever-evolving history of how an old Methodist camp melody became the most famous marching song and then the warlike anthem sung all across the political spectrum and at all manner of public events. Through the story of a song, surprised readers will learn a great deal about what binds as well as divides Americans." --David W. Blight, Yale University, and author of
American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era "Stauffer and Soskis interestingly show the song's evolution and how it parallels large portions of our nation's history. The song truly captures those events that have shaped the nation. It provides clear examples of what unites and divides us as individuals and collectively as a nation....The book is extremely well organized and well written. Those who love music and the "story behind the music" will really enjoy this work. It receives my strongest recommendation and will be stored among my favorites." --
Civil War News "...[T]he work as a whole is remarkable in its poignancy and thoughtfulness. Those interested in all things political, religious, patriotic, and even musical will find excellent material and useful insight in Stauffer and Soskis's work." --
The Journal of Southern Religion
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