About the Book:Life Flows on in Endless Song explores American folk songs as a frame for the American experience. Robert V. Wells discusses how folk songs emerged from particular historical circumstances and evolved as they migrated from one region to another. Crafting a thematic map of four centuries of American history, Wells investigates how songs embody shifting attitudes toward the institution of the family, war and religion, work and the labor movement, transportation in America, and slavery and Jim Crow. He also considers modern folk heroes Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. Featuring a selective discography of key recordings, this book offers an accessible model for using folk songs as a richly evocative reflection of the American past.Table of Contents: Preface ix CHAPTER 1 Who Was Tom Dooley? History and Folk Songs 1 CHAPTER 2 Careless Love: Courtship, Marriage, and Children 9 CHAPTER 4 “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”: Of God and Country 35 CHAPTER 5 The Man Who Never Returned: Ships, Trains, and Other Transportation 96 CHAPTER 6 Just Lookin’ for a Home: Traveling On 121 CHAPTER 7 Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen: Hard Times and Hard Men 147 CHAPTER 8 How Can I Keep from Singing? Huddie Ledbetter and Woody Guthrie 175 Coda: Thinking about Folk Songs 195 Notes 205 Select Bibliography and Discography 225 Index 233