The No. 1 music book in 2015, according to Rolling Stone magazine, does not feature current pop stars like Beyoncé or Taylor Swift, nor does it tell the woeful tale of a once-disregarded artist’s difficult rise to fame, but rather relates the complex and poignant story of the Vietnam War, as told through popular songs of that era. In We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, songs like Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are Made for Walkin’” and Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools” place popular music at the heart of the Vietnam experience.
Told through a rich diversity of veterans’ voices, We Gotta Get Out of This Place provides new insight into the dramatic ways in which music helped soldiers make sense of the world, both of the war itself and life back home. Authors Doug Bradley and Craig Werner have compiled a well-researched guide that demonstrates how soldiers of all backgrounds—black and white, Latino and Native American, men and women—used music to cope with the fighting. The rich voices of ordinary soldiers come alive in dramatic first-person narratives dubbed “Solos” and their vivid recollections take readers on a riveting journey from tension, fear and despair to hope and promise for the future. This powerful collection will enlighten understanding of the Vietnam War and the culture of our country during this tumultuous time in history.
Authors Bradley and Werner both teach at UW-Madison. They will appear with contributor Bill Christofferson at Boswell Book Co. at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 29.
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Book Happening:
Matthew Desmond
7 p.m., Tuesday, March 1
Boswell Book Co.
2559 N. Downer Ave.
In the eye-opening Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew Desmond, Harvard professor and co-director of the Justice and Poverty Project, tells the stories of four Milwaukee residents living on the brink. Facing addiction, disability and an all-too-common inability to pay their rent, the families at the heart of Desmond’s gripping account all share an urgent message focusing on an issue that is becoming a reality for a growing number of Americans. Desmond is a 2015 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant recipient.
