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Article: `YANKEE DOODLE': FROM GIBE TO PRIDE
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- July 4, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2000 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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It is impossible to be an American and not know the song "Yankee
Doodle." It is played every Fourth of July, a plucky old tune that
instantly conjures patriotic images of America's war of independence
against Great Britain. But the wonderful story of how this ditty
became the nation's first anthem, and the seminal role it played in
helping Americans see themselves as citizens of that new nation, is
less well known.
In "America's Song: The Story of Yankee Doodle," New York
historian and author Stuart Murray has written what amounts to a
biography of the tune, from its beginnings as a Dutch harvest song to
its maturity as anthem of a new nation. The book is everything one
wants a good ...