The books listed in this column address music as it relates to political expression or focus to a significant degree on power relationships between individual musicians or musical communities and a governing authority. Readers are welcome to submit additional titles to [email protected] for possible inclusion in the next issue.

  • Arnold Schoenberg’s “A Survivor from Warsaw” in Postwar Europe. By Joy H. Calico. (California Studies in 20th-Century Music, 17; S. Mark Taper Foundation Imprint in Jewish Studies.) Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014. [xv, 254 p. ISBN-13 9780520281868, $60 (hbk.); 9780520957701, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Convent Music and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Vienna. By Janet K. Page. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. [335 p. ISBN-13 9781107039087, $99 (hbk.); 9781139910699, $99 (ebk.); 9781139922432, $125 (ebk.).]
  • Culture and Propaganda in World War II: Music, Film, and the Battle for National Identity. By John Morris. (International Library of Twentieth Century History, 64.) London: I. B. Tauris, 2014. (vii, 248 p. ISBN-13 9781780763972. $95.]
  • Dancer in the Revolution: Stretch Johnson, Harlem Communist at the Cotton Club. By Howard Eugene Johnson. New York: Fordham University Press, 2014. [xxiv, 191 p. ISBN-13 9780823256532. $29.95.]
  • The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation. By Daniel Fischlin, Ajay Heble, and George Lipsitz. (Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice.) Durham: Duke University Press, 2013. [xxxiv, 292 p. ISBN-13 9780822354642, $84.95 (hbk.); 9780822354789, $23.95 (pbk.); 9780822378358, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Friedelind Wagner: Richard Wagner’s Rebellious Granddaughter. By Eva Rieger. Translated by Chris Walton. London: The Boydell Press, 2013. [352 p. ISBN-13 9781843838647, $50 (hbk.); 9781782042259, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Geächtet, verboten, vertrieben: Österreichische Musiker 1934 – 1938 – 1945. Edited by Hartmut Krones. (Schriften des Wissenschaftszentrum Arnold Schönberg, 1.) Vienna: Böhlau, 2013. [608 p. ISBN-13 9783205774198. €55.]
  • The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical. By Warren Hoffman. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014. [x, 251 p. ISBN-13 9780813563350, $63.50 (hbk.); 9780813563343, $26.95 (pbk.); 9780813563367, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Heroische Weltsicht: Hitler und die Musik. By Sebastian Werr. Cologne: Böhlau, 2014. [300 p. ISBN-13 9783412222475. €29.90.]
  • I’ll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers, and the March Up Freedom’s Highway. By Greg Kot. New York: Scribner, 2014. [viii, 308 p. ISBN-13 9781451647853. $26.]
  • The Impact of Nazism on Twentieth-Century Music. Edited by Erik Levi. Vienna: Böhlau, 2014. (Exil.Arte-Schriften, 3.) [354 p. ISBN-13 9783205795438. €45.]
  • Jazz, pouvoir et subversion = Jazz, Macht und Subversion: de 1919 à nos jours = von 1919 bis heute. By Pascale Cohen-Avenel. (Travaux interdisciplinaires et plurilingues, 21.) Bern: Peter Lang, 2014. [viii, 347 p. ISBN-13 9783034314145. €83.35.]
  • Know Your Enemy: Rage Against the Machine. By Joel McIver. London: Omnibus Press, 2014. [xi, 244 p. ISBN-13 9781783050468, $24.95.]
  • The Legacy of Johann Strauss: Political Influence and Twentieth-Century Identity. By Zoë Alexis Lang. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. [xi, 238 p. ISBN-13 9781107022683, $95 (hbk.); 9781139865043, $95 (ebk.); 9781139870771, $125 (ebk.); 9781139136969, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Leningrad, Siege and Symphony: The Story of the Great City Terrorized by Stalin, Starved by Hitler, Immortalized by Shostakovich. By Brian Moynahan. London: Quercus, 2013. [xii, 558 p. ISBN-13 9780857383006, $42.84 (hbk.); 9780857383013, price unknown (pbk.).]
  • Liedgeschichten: Musik und Lied in Tiroler Politik und Gesellschaft, 1796–1848. By Sandra Hupfauf and Silvia Maria Erber. (Schriften zur musikalischen Ethnologie, 2.) Innsbruck: Wagner, 2013. [382p. ISBN-13 9783703008047. €50.50.]
  • Living Politics, Making Music: The Writings of Jan Fairley. By Jan Fairley. Edited by Simon Frith, Stan Rijven, and Ian Christie. (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series.) Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2014. [x, 208 p. ISBN-13 9781472412669, $109.95 (hbk.); 9781472414175, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Marginalised Music: Music, Religion, and Politics from Western Odisha/India. By Lidia Guzy. (Klang/KulturStudien, 8.) Zürich: Lit, 2013. [258 p. ISBN-13 9783643902726. $44.95.]
  • The Militant Song Movement in Latin America: Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina. By Pablo Vila. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014. [282 p. ISBN-13 9780739183243, $95 (hbk.); 9780739183250, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Music and Political Youth Organizations in Russia: The National Identity Issue. By Chiara Pierobon. (Springer VS Research.) Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2014. [227 p. ISBN-13 9783658043124, $59.99 (pbk.); 9783658043131, $59.99 (ebk.).]
  • Music and Propaganda in the Short Twentieth Century. Edited by Massimiliano Sala. (Speculum musicae, 22.) Turnhout: Brepols, 2014. [xii, 471 p. ISBN-13 9782503552460. €110.00.]
  • Music, Piety, and Propaganda: The Soundscapes of Counter-Reformation Bavaria. By Alexander J. Fisher. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. [xvi, 359 p. ISBN-13 9780199764648, $55 (hbk.); 9780199311354, price varies (ebk.).]
  • The Musical Legacy of Wartime France. By Leslie A. Sprout. (California Studies in 20th-Century Music, 16.) Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. [xxiii, 280 p. ISBN-13 9780520275300, $65 (hbk.); 9780520955271, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Musik in der Hitlerjugend: Organisation, Entwicklung, Kontexte. By Karin Stoverock. Uelvesbüll: Der Andere Verlag, 2013. [2 vols. (832 p.). ISBN-13 9783862473625. €119.]
  • Musik und Propaganda: Der erste Weltkrieg im Spiegel deutscher Bildpostkarten. Sabine Giesbrecht. (Beiträge zur Medienästhetik der Musik, 14.) Osnabrück: Electronic Publishing Osnabrück, 2014. [ix, 280 p. ISBN-13 9783940255518. €41.50.]
  • Networks of Power in Digital Copyright Law and Policy: Political Salience, Expertise and the Legislative Process. By Benjamin Farrand. London: Routledge, 2014. [x, 212 p. ISBN-13 9780415854429, $135 (hbk.); 9780203797921, price varies (ebk.); 9781136004001, price varies (ebk.).]
  • The “Oriental Music” Broadcasts, 1936-1937: A Musical Ethnography of Mandatory Palestine. By Robert Lachmann. Edited by Ruth F. Davis. (Recent Researches in the Oral Traditions of Music, 10.) Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2013. [xliii, 124 p. ISBN-13 9780895797766. $175.]
  • The Original Guitar Hero and the Power of Music: The Legendary Lonnie Johnson, Music, and Civil Rights. By Dean Alger. (North Texas Lives of Musicians Series, 8.) Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 2014. [xvii, 365 p. ISBN-13 9781574415469, $24.95 (hbk.); 9781574415568, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Pantomime Terror: Music and Politics. By John Hutnyk. Winchester, UK: Zero Books, 2014. [xii, 211 p. ISBN-13 9781782792093, $22.95 (pbk.); 9781782792086, $9.99 (ebk.).]
  • The Pete Seeger Reader. Edited by Ronald D. Cohen and James Capaldi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. [xv, 268 p. ISBN-13 780199862016, $35 (hbk.); 9780199862023, price varies (ebk.).]
  • The Political Force of Musical Beauty. By Barry Shank. (Refiguring American Music.) Durham: Duke University Press, 2014. [ix, 330 p. ISBN-13 9780822356462, $94.95 (hbk.); 9780822356585, $25.95 (pbk.); 9780822376750, price varies (ebk.).]
  • The Politics of Everyday Life in Gikuyu Popular Music of Kenya. By Maina Wa Mutonya. Nairobi, Kenya: Twaweza Communications, 2013. [xii, 172 p. ISBN-13 9789966028440, $26.95 (pbk.); 9789966028471, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Politics of Songs in Eighteenth-Century Britain, 1723–1795. By Kate Horgan. (Poetry and Song in the Age of Revolution, 4.) London: Pickering and Chatto, 2014. [262 p. ISBN-13 9781848934795. $99.]
  • The Power of Song: Nonviolent National Culture in the Baltic Singing Revolution. By Guntis Smidchens. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014. [x, 446 p. ISBN-13 9780295993102, $50 (hbk.); 9780295804897, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Punk Rock and the German Crisis: Adaptation and Resistance after 1977. By Cyrus Shahan. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. [xiv, 192 p. ISBN-13 781137343666, $85 (hbk.); 9781137337559, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Punk Rock Warlord: The Life and Work of Joe Strummer. Edited by Barry Faulk and Brady Harrison. (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series.) Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2014. [xiii, 197 p. ISBN-13 9781472410559, $104.95 (hbk.); 9781472410566, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture. By Hisham Aidi. New York: Pantheon Books, 2014. [xxx, 398 p. ISBN-13 9780375424908, $29.95 (hbk.); 9780307908681, $85 (ebk.).]
  • Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music. By Nadine Hubbs. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014. [xiv, 225 p. ISBN-13 9780520280656, $60 (hbk.); 9780520280663, $34.95 (pbk.); 9780520958340, price varies (ebk.).]
  • A Renegade Called Simphiwe. By Pumla Dineo Gqola. Johannesburg: MFBooks, 2013. [xx, 158 p. ISBN-13 9781920601089. $28.95.]
  • The Rock Cover Song: Culture, History, Politics. By Doyle Greene. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014. [ix, 204 p. ISBN-13 9780786478095, $40 (pbk.); 9781476615073, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Sharecropper’s Troubadour: John L. Handcox, the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union, and the African American Song Tradition. By Michael K. Honey. (Palgrave Studies in Oral History.) New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. [xix, 210 p. ISBN-13 9780230111271, $95 (hbk.); 9781137088369, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Tell Tchaikovsky the News: Rock ‘n’ Roll, the Labor Question, and the Musicians’ Union, 1942–1968. By Michael James Roberts. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014. [xv, 254 p. ISBN-13 9780822354635, $84.95 (hbk.); 9780822354758, $23.95 (pbk.); 9780822378839, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Tunes of Blood and Iron: German Regimental and Parade Marches from Frederick the Great to the Present Day. By Joachim Toeche-Mittler. Vol. 1. Solihull, West Midlands, UK: Helion, 2013. [176 p. ISBN-13 9781909384231, $39.95.]
  • Verdi und Wagner, Oper und Politik. By Hartmut Wasser. Waiblingen: Schwoerer, 2013. [116 p. ISBN-13 978-3-927704-29-9. €11.80.]
  • The Walrus and the Elephants: John Lennon’s Years of Revolution. By James A. Mitchell. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2013. [265 p. ISBN-13 9781609804671, $23.95 (hbk.); 9781609804688, price varies (ebk.).]
  • Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot. By Masha Gessen. New York: Riverhead Books, 2014. [308 p. ISBN-13 9781594632198. $16.]