Bruce Springsteen's America: The People Listening, a Poet Singing - Hardcover

Coles, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375505598 ISBN 13: 9780375505591

Publisher: Random House Inc, 2003

Synopsis

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Children of Crisis offers a unique vision of musical legend Bruce Springsteen and the influence of his music on both the lives of ordinary Americans and on the American literary tradition, examining the meaning of Springsteen's lyrics and profiling "The Boss" as poet within a larger social, cultural, and philosophical context. 75,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Authors

Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist, is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of <i>Children of Crisis</i> as well as <i>The Spiritual Life of Children, Women of Crisis,</i> and <i>Lives of Moral Leadership,</i> among many other books. A professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, he is also the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard. He lives in Massachusetts.

Robert Coles is a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, he is also the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard.

From the Inside Flap

In this compelling book, Robert Coles, the celebrated Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize–winning author, turns his attention to popular music legend Bruce Springsteen, and to the powerful impact Springsteen’s work has had both on the lives of his audience and on this country’s literary tradition. Coles places Springsteen in the pantheon of American artists—Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Dorothea Lange, and Walker Percy, among others—who understood and were inspired by their “traveling companions in time,” the ordinary people of their eras.<br><br>With wisdom and a unique personal perspective, Coles explores Springsteen’s words as contemporary American poetry, and offers firsthand accounts of how people interact with them: A trucker listens to “Blinded by the Light” during long, lonely nights and reminisces about his mother; a schoolteacher is astonished when a usually silent student offers a comparison between “Nebraska” and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; a policeman responds to “American Skin (41 Shots),” reflecting on his own role in his family and community. As these people, and others, candidly discuss the meaning Springsteen’s words have in their lives, Coles listens and, with the special insight and compassion that are the trademarks of his art, sheds new light on “The Boss,” removing the legendary American rock musician from fan-filled stadiums and placing the poet in a greater social, cultural, and philosophical context. Coles sees Springsteen as a representative of a uniquely American documentary tradition—as a sing-ing and traveling poet who does not simply embody the culture of which he is a part but fully engages it, interacting with its people and creating a conversation that has helped to shape a distinct way of looking at, and living, American life today.

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0375505598
• ISBN 13: 9780375505591
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 244