When UNC Press published Stella Gentry Sharpe's Tobe in 1939, it was hailed as one of the first children's books to offer a dignified portrayal of an African American child and his family. Today, the power of Tobe lies as much in the questions it raises: Whose story gets told? Who gets to tell it? How do stories shape how we see ourselves and each other? This volume reproduces the original volume's text and images, places the book in the context of its time, and offers thought-provoking ways to read Tobe with fresh eyes. Benjamin Filene explores the book as a story told in words, as a world constructed through photographs, as a chapter in the history of juvenile literature, and (through interviews with the people photographed and their descendants) as a window into community memory. Encouraging close readings and second looks, Filene presents a project kit for exploring a historical text, yielding surprising insights. This new edition of a children's classic opens up questions of race, voice, and power in ways that encourage fruitful conversation and resist easy answers.

When UNC Press published Stella Gentry Sharpe's Tobe in 1939, it was hailed as one of the first children's books to offer a dignified portrayal of an African American child and his family. Today, the power of Tobe lies as much in the questions it raises: Whose story gets told? Who gets to tell it? How do stories shape how we see ourselves and each other? This volume reproduces the original volume's text and images, places the book in the context of its time, and offers thought-provoking ways to read Tobe with fresh eyes. Benjamin Filene explores the book as a story told in words, as a world constructed through photographs, as a chapter in the history of juvenile literature, and (through interviews with the people photographed and their descendants) as a window into community memory. Encouraging close readings and second looks, Filene presents a project kit for exploring a historical text, yielding surprising insights. This new edition of a children's classic opens up questions of race, voice, and power in ways that encourage fruitful conversation and resist easy answers.

In American music, the notion of ""roots"" has been a powerful refrain, but just what constitutes our true musical traditions has often been a matter of debate. As Benjamin Filene reveals, a number of competing visions of America's musical past have vied for influence over the public imagination in this century. Filene builds his story around a fascinating group of characters--folklorists, record company executives, producers, radio programmers, and publicists--who acted as middlemen between folk and popular culture. These cultural brokers ""discovered"" folk musicians, recorded them, and promoted them. In the process, Filene argues, they shaped mainstream audiences' understanding of what was ""authentic"" roots music. Filene moves beyond the usual boundaries of folk music to consider a wide range of performers who drew on or were drawn into the canon of American roots music--from Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie, to Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, to Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. Challenging traditional accounts that would confine folk music revivalism to the 1930s and 1960s, he argues instead that the desire to preserve and popularize America's musical heritage is a powerful current that has run throughout this century's culture and continues to flow today. |Benjamin Filene examines the competing visions of America's musical past--and the cultural middlemen who shaped these visions--that have vied for influence over the public imagination in this century. This book brings to light the relationship between folk or roots music and popular culture.