"The Yanks Are Coming:" The Songs of World War INational Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
Free
Explore the cultural impact of World War I through the music of the time
American attitudes changed dramatically during World War I, a shift reflected in popular music of the time, from 1915's anti-war “I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be a Soldier” to 1918's patriotic “Over There.”
Join us as a three-piece ensemble performs popular songs of World War I to trace this change in American attitudes. Peabody Award-winning radio personality Michael Lasser will discuss how the nation the Doughboys returned to was so different from the one they left.
Explore how love songs, with their emphasis on parting, separation, and the longing to return, gave way to songs after the war ended that expressed a new worldview, signaling the emotional and cultural beginning of the 20th century.
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