"Robert James Branham, an American professor of rhetoric, had a hunch that in American borrowings of this melody lay a story fascinating in its own right.Readers will learn much from these pages."---Times Literary Supplement"[A] fascinating account of the history of the song some consider the US's real national anthemAn excellent microcosm of US history."--CHOICE"Branham's research revealed that advocates of temperance, women's suffrage, labor organization, the abolition of slavery, the promotion of patriotism, and varied notions of national identity during the Civil War repeatedly chose this melody to frame their versified thoughts.Readers will learn much from these pages."--Times Literary Supplement"[A] useful source in regard to the many forms of a most important American hymn and its links to nineteenth-century social reforms.Offers students of nineteenth-century America a wealth of information about aspect of the self-promotion efforts of social reform."--American Historical Review"Robert James Branham, an American professor of rhetoric, had a hunch that in American borrowings of this melody lay a story fascinating in its own right.

Readers will learn much from these pages."---Times Literary Supplement"[A] fascinating account of the history of the song some consider the US's real national anthemAn excellent microcosm of US history."--CHOICE"Branham's research revealed that advocates of temperance, women's suffrage, labor organization, the abolition of slavery, the promotion of patriotism, and varied notions of national identity during the Civil War repeatedly chose this melody to frame their versified thoughts.Readers will learn much from these pages."--Times Literary Supplement"[A] useful source in regard to the many forms of a most important American hymn and its links to nineteenth-century social reforms.Offers students of nineteenth-century America a wealth of information about aspect of the self-promotion efforts of social reform."--American Historical Review.