National Anthems: From Colonial Times to the Present

No doubt any American could correctly answer the question “What is our national anthem?”, but in fact, many different songs have functioned as national or regional anthems in the course of American history—and some might well have become our official national anthem. Some of these songs became part of our American songbag; some were—or still are—anthems for different regions, communities, or generations; and some came to be personal, political, cultural, or spiritual anthems for some Americans.

We’ll listen to many of our country’s anthems—from Colonial America through the 1860s, the 1960s, and today—and hear some we don’t know, while learning things we don’t know about those we do know.

Robert Cohen has been lecturing on American and New York City folk, popular, and ethnic music, and on Jewish music, for over a quarter of a century—including at the Fifth Avenue New York Public Library and the West Hartford Public Library; the New England Conservatory of Music and the New School in New York; the Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew College in Boston, and Boston College's Center for Christian-Jewish Learning and School of Theology & Ministry; the American Jewish Historical Society; and the Afro-American Historical & Cultural Museum in Philadelphia. He wrote the NPR documentary "One People, Many Voices: American-Jewish Music Comes of Age" (narrated by the late Theodore Bikel), and produced the compilation CD OPEN THE GATES! NEW AMERICAN-JEWISH MUSIC FOR PRAYER.