Civil War Music with Christian McWhirter

Have you ever been standing in line at the grocery store and found yourself quietly humming the melody to John Brown's Body? Or...maybe that's just me. At any rate, as a Civil War historian the music of the era has always captured my attention - not just as a background to the action but as an important component of each national cause. As such I am really stoked to have Christian McWhirter, author of Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War, on the show. Christian agrees that music was central to the lives and causes of soldiers and civilians alike. We discuss:

• Alternate career paths for academic historians

• The significance of music in the armies

• The popularity of particular tunes

• Music and nationalism

• Battles of the bands - in history and mythology

• Music and reconciliation

Christian has great advice to which any student of history should pay great attention, he talks about his blog: Civil War Pop, and he suggests we all read a classic: Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!by George C. Rable

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Music by Advent Chamber Orchestra is licensed under Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/