Great Men of American Popular Song provides a sweeping overview of American popular music, beginning with America’s first war songs and continuing through the 1960’s and 1970’s, including Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Along the way are chapters devoted to minstrel songs, Civil War songs, songs of the sentimental nineties, Tin Pan Alley, vaudeville, operetta, musical comedy, blues, revues, stage musicals, and Hollywood film. In each case the history is told through the biographies of the songwriters.

Ewen’s text is fascinating, very readable, and an excellent historical overview. There is a separate index containing many hundreds of song titles, but, as should be expected in a text with this scope, there is little in-depth discussion on individual songs.

David Ewen is a prolific writer on American song with books such as American Songwriters, Great Men of American Popular Song, Popular American Composers from Revolutionary Times to the Present, George Gershwin: His Journey to Greatness, and other titles.