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The Banjo: America’s African Instrument
The banjo has been called by many names over its history, but they all refer to the same sound―strings humming over skin―that has eased souls and electrified crowds for centuries. The Banjo invites us to hear that sound afresh in a biography of one of America’s iconic folk instruments. Attuned to a rich heritage spanning continents and cultures, Laurent Dubois traces the banjo from humble origins, revealing how it became one of the great stars of American musical life.
In the seventeenth century, enslaved people in the Caribbean and North America drew on their memories of varied African musical traditions to construct instruments from carved-out gourds covered with animal skin. Providing a much-needed sense of rootedness, solidarity, and consolation, banjo picking became an essential part of black plantation life. White musicians took up the banjo in the nineteenth century, when it became the foundation of the minstrel show and began to be produced industrially on a large scale. Even as this instrument found its way into rural white communities, however, the banjo remained central to African American musical performance.
Twentieth-century musicians incorporated the instrument into styles ranging from ragtime and jazz to Dixieland, bluegrass, reggae, and pop. Versatile and enduring, the banjo combines rhythm and melody into a single unmistakable sound that resonates with strength and purpose. From the earliest days of American history, the banjo’s sound has allowed folk musicians to create community and joy even while protesting oppression and injustice.
In the seventeenth century, enslaved people in the Caribbean and North America drew on their memories of varied African musical traditions to construct instruments from carved-out gourds covered with animal skin. Providing a much-needed sense of rootedness, solidarity, and consolation, banjo picking became an essential part of black plantation life. White musicians took up the banjo in the nineteenth century, when it became the foundation of the minstrel show and began to be produced industrially on a large scale. Even as this instrument found its way into rural white communities, however, the banjo remained central to African American musical performance.
Twentieth-century musicians incorporated the instrument into styles ranging from ragtime and jazz to Dixieland, bluegrass, reggae, and pop. Versatile and enduring, the banjo combines rhythm and melody into a single unmistakable sound that resonates with strength and purpose. From the earliest days of American history, the banjo’s sound has allowed folk musicians to create community and joy even while protesting oppression and injustice.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2016
25 people are currently reading
245 people want to read
About the author
Laurent Dubois
119 books45 followersLaurent Dubois (PhD. University of Michigan) is associate professor of history at Michigan State University. His book A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787–1804 won the American Historical Association Prize in Atlantic History and the John Edwin Fagg Award. He is also the author of Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution, which was a Christian Science Monitor Noteworthy Book of 2004 and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2004, Les esclaves de la République: l'histoire oubliée de la première emancipation, 1787–1794, and Haiti: The Aftershocks of History.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/lauren...
http://us.macmillan.com/author/lauren...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 6, 2016
I've read about every book that has been written about the banjo, this is a good one. Laurent Dubois did a good job of analyzing ideas presented in other books and combined it with his own research to come up with well developed conclusions and theories about the history as well as the cultural and musical significance of "America's African Instrument;" the banjo.
I would suggest getting "America's Instrument: The Banjo in Nineteenth Century America" by Phillip Gura and Jim Bollman and "Picturing the Banjo" by Leo Mazow as pictorial companions to this book.
I would suggest getting "America's Instrument: The Banjo in Nineteenth Century America" by Phillip Gura and Jim Bollman and "Picturing the Banjo" by Leo Mazow as pictorial companions to this book.
September 12, 2017
What intrigued me: A biography of a musical instrument. What's not to love?
What I liked: There is so much history surrounding this insturment and so much I was ignorant of. It's given me a deeper appreciation for the songs I am learning and the bonjoists who popularized all the different sounds you can make with this one instrument.
What I didn't like: I've had a slight crisis of identity and cultural appropriation while reading this book. While difficult it is an excellent learning experience.
Favorite quote: “When Walt Whitman imagined what an 'American Opera' should sound like, he started with the instrument: "put three banjos (or more?) in the orchestra...' Yet in the racial context of the nineteenth century, those who wished to celebrate the instrument as "American" confronted a cultural conundrum. The banjo's popularity was based on its association with an African-American culture that was both disdained and fetishized.”
My blog will eventually have my full review.
What I liked: There is so much history surrounding this insturment and so much I was ignorant of. It's given me a deeper appreciation for the songs I am learning and the bonjoists who popularized all the different sounds you can make with this one instrument.
What I didn't like: I've had a slight crisis of identity and cultural appropriation while reading this book. While difficult it is an excellent learning experience.
Favorite quote: “When Walt Whitman imagined what an 'American Opera' should sound like, he started with the instrument: "put three banjos (or more?) in the orchestra...' Yet in the racial context of the nineteenth century, those who wished to celebrate the instrument as "American" confronted a cultural conundrum. The banjo's popularity was based on its association with an African-American culture that was both disdained and fetishized.”
My blog will eventually have my full review.
July 1, 2016
This is the most thorough history of the instrument that I've seen, and it goes fairly deep into the history of the music that the banjo is known for.
It's detailed, but not pedantic. The author is a professor, but his book isn't written in the dry tone of a research paper that I've seen in other books on this subject.
I got it from the library, and I'm half tempted to purchase it outright. I'd like it on my bookshelf.
It's detailed, but not pedantic. The author is a professor, but his book isn't written in the dry tone of a research paper that I've seen in other books on this subject.
I got it from the library, and I'm half tempted to purchase it outright. I'd like it on my bookshelf.
February 17, 2025
A great overview of the history of the instrument. However, the information is presented in a cyclical manner that seems to be trying to prove itself in the moment instead of telling the story. It is so repetitive that I lost interest before even getting to chapter 2. I pushed through but was constantly lost in the heaps and heaps of unnecessary details.
January 2, 2021
Ironic cover photo considering this book barely even mentions bluegrass banjo. This is about the origins and long complicated history of the banjo with lots of interesting information about blackface minstrelsy and the folk movement of the 20th century.
February 11, 2021
Informative beyond my expectations, readable as any novel, just a real treat. If you have any questions about banjos and how this distinctly African-American instrument became symbolic of white rural life, this is the place to get answers.
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August 2, 2025I really learned a lot from this book, which gives an in-depth history of the banjo as it migrated from Africa to the Caribean to North America.
May 18, 2016
This was an excellent resource that traces the cultural history of the banjo and the people who have played it. It pays due homage to the African roots of the instrument.
The downside was that it was extremely repetitive, especially in the first several chapters. The chapters were logically organized, but the text of the individual chapters rambled on from one topic to the next, and shifted back and forth over time.
5-star information that every banjo player should read, but 2-star execution. It reads like a good rough draft that should have been much more polished and refined in the editing process.
The downside was that it was extremely repetitive, especially in the first several chapters. The chapters were logically organized, but the text of the individual chapters rambled on from one topic to the next, and shifted back and forth over time.
5-star information that every banjo player should read, but 2-star execution. It reads like a good rough draft that should have been much more polished and refined in the editing process.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews