In Race, Rock, and Elvis, Michael T. Bertrand contends that popular music, specifically Elvis's brand of rock 'n' roll, helped revise racial attitudes after World War II. Observing that youthful fans of rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, and other black-inspired music seemed more inclined than their segregationist elders to ignore the color line, Bertrand links popular music with a more general relaxation, led by white youths, of the historical denigration of blacks in the South. The tradition of southern racism, successfully communicated to previous generations, failed for the first time when confronted with the demand for rock 'n' roll by a new, national, commercialized youth culture. In a narrative peppered with the colorful observations of ordinary southerners, Bertrand argues that appreciating black music made possible a new recognition of blacks as fellow human beings. Bertrand documents black enthusiasm for Elvis and cites the racially mixed audiences that flocked to the new music at a time when adults expected separate performances for black and white audiences. He describes the critical role of radio and recordings in blurring the color line and notes that these media made black culture available to appreciative whites on an unprecedented scale. He also shows how music was used to define and express the values of a southern working-class youth culture in transition, as young whites, many of them trying to orient themselves in an unfamiliar urban setting, embraced black music and culture as a means of identifying themselves. By adding rock 'n' roll to the mix of factors that fed into civil rights advances in the South, Race, Rock, and Elvis shows how the music, with its rituals and vehicles, symbolized the vast potential for racial accord inherent in postwar society.''It was teenagers who bought Elvis Presley's records, in enormous numbers. And Michael T. Bertrand's convincingly argues that the black-and-white character of the sound, as well as Elvis's own persona, helped to relax the rigid color line and thereby fed the fires of the civil rights movement. . . . A sobering lesson for historians who scoff at popular culture (and the oral testimony that peppers the book) as trivia for the tenured.''--Karal Ann Marling, American Historical Review ''Bertrand has managed to argue more cogently and with more evidential authority than any previous commentator that the music that Elvis Presley and his rockabilly cousins fashioned in the South in the 1950s represented a serious threat to various national and regional social conventions, particularly those relating to race, class, and gender.''--Brian Ward, The Journal of American History ''Meticulous research and elegant, concise prose. . . . Bertrand has written an insightful book that both deepens our understanding of rock 'n' roll and makes significant contributions to musical studies, Southern history, and the history of the civil rights movement. . . . Would make an excellent book for adoption in undergraduate and graduate history courses, as its provocative arguments and fascinating anecdotes are sure to spark lively classroom discussions.''--Patrick Huber, History
