33 revolutions per minute

A history of protest songs

Dorian Lynskey, Faber and Faber, 864 pages, paperback, £17.99

Starting with Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday’s harrowing classic about lynching, this book works its way through the world of protest songs up to Green Day’s anti-Bush/redneck song American Idiot.

It’s a moving history of protest music, told via 33 songs — some of the best music that has inspired and provided the soundtrack to social change across the globe. On the way it charts major political events in the US and Britain from the 1960s, and takes detours into the protest music of Chile, Nigeria and Jamaica.

Music journalist Dorian Lynskey explores the individuals, ideas and events behind each song, showing how protest songs have provided a focus for social change. The book takes in unlikely rebels the Dixie Chicks, who had records burned and concerts picketed for speaking out against Bush and the Iraq War, and Chilean folk singer Victor Jara, who had both hands broken before being executed by Pinochet’s murdererous regime.

It is an expansive survey of the way in which music has engaged with issues like racial unrest and nuclear paranoia, stirring anger and offering hope in a way which continues to resonate many years on.

Reviews contributed by Bookmarks, the UK’s leading socialist bookshop. Order online at www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk