The history of American patriotic songs offers a lesson about the different ways you can say you love your country.
Composers have celebrated endurance under fire ( “The Star-Spangled Banner” ) and invoked divine approval (“God Bless America”). While Toby Keith's “Made in America” dares anyone to question American eminence, Woody Guthrie's “This Land Is Your Land” and Curtis Mayfield's “This Is My Country” highlight a long tradition of weaving in social protest, as if the advance to a “more perfect union” is only possible through acknowledging imperfection.
