A tall, skinny man
in blue jeans stands on a stage, one hand on his banjo, the other
raised to the crowd of 15,000 people who have come to celebrate his
ninetieth birthday. "Sing it!" he shouts, and everyone
sings. How did a humble, banjo-playing Harvard University dropout
become one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century?
This is the story of Pete Seeger—singer, songwriter, social
activist, environmentalist—who filled his toolbox with songs and
set out to repair whatever in the world was broken. His story
intertwines with a century of American history, and readers will be
surprised to discover how many familiar songs, people, and projects
somehow connect back to this one individual. What was it like for a
city boy like Pete to hope freight trains with Woody Guthrie, the
free-spirited composter of "This Land Is Your Land"? "The
Lion Sleeps Tonight," a song beloved by people all over the
world, might have been lost to history had it not been for Pete
Seeger. The Hudson River is cleaner than it used to be; what did Pete
do to help that happen? Through learning of his life of activism,
readers will become links in the chain, inspired to reflect on their
own power to make change.