God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song by Sheryl Kaskowitz (review)

Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” is an ideal popular song: memorable, easy to perform, and capable of supporting a variety of interpretations. In God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song, Sheryl Kaskowitz presents a thorough investigation of the song’s history and the contested meanings ascribed to the work by different audiences throughout the last century. Far more than a study of a single song, the book addresses everything from “shifting ideas about the role of the composer and performer in popular music” to “intervention and war, assimilation and acceptance of outsiders, the rise of the ideological Right, rifts between generations, and definitions of Americanness itself” (p. 4).

Kaskowitz begins by contextualizing the song’s history in the popular traditions of the Victorian parlor song and the Tin Pan Alley ballad, as well as the “repertoire of unofficial national anthems” (pp. 5–6). She suggests that the song’s effectiveness and popularity stems from Berlin’s use of familiar expressive schemas that portray a communal American identity. From there, the author unpacks the mythology surrounding the song’s creation. Originally written in 1918 for a revue with an all-soldier cast, “God Bless America” was cut from the show and remained in Berlin’s trunk until he revised it for Kate Smith’s 1938 premiere. The song’s subsequent popularity led to ongoing conflicts between Smith (represented by her manager Ted Collins) and Berlin that exemplify problems of ownership, creation, and the “underlying tensions between composer and performer in American popular music” (p. 7).

The next chapter thoroughly investigates the song’s compositional history, shedding light on the intersection of Berlin’s musical craftsmanship and business acumen. Berlin was acutely aware of how changing geopolitical tensions would influence the song’s reception: the circumstances surrounding the 1918 version’s associations with interventionism had changed by 1938, and Berlin consequently tempered lyrics and musical gestures “appropriate for a country at war” (p. 36) with alterations that included the addition of a first verse. This verse casts the song as a hymn and reflects the anti-interventionism prevalent in pre-World War II American cultural life. In the final revision (one week before Smith’s premiere), Berlin changed lyrics, added a new C section (“from the mountains. …”), and “alter[ed] the climactic center of the song” by shifting the final line’s emphasis from “America” to “God” (p. 40). These changes, coupled with the deletion of the first verse, reveal the drastic swing in American public opinion from staunchly anti-interventionist to interventionist, while paradoxically removing “God Bless America” from any specific historical context. Kaskowitz suggests that this “adaptability” made the song “timeless, no doubt contributing to its ongoing popularity” (p. 42). Kaskowitz emphasizes the influence of Smith’s performances and the arrangement on the song’s initial popularity, which both “continued the shift away from pop tune sensibilities that Berlin’s revisions had begun” (p. 43) and positioned the song as a hymn or anthem, “solidif[ying] the song’s associations with group singing” (p. 48).

The remainder of the book concentrates on the song’s reception and popularity. After its premiere, “God Bless America” functioned like an unofficial national anthem, which, Kaskowitz argues in chapter 3, was possible because of the song’s style (hymn- or anthem-like and not “popular”), singability (becoming a vehicle for public expressions of patriotism and community), and timing (appropriately expressing sentiments widely held both before and during World War II). Despite its popularity, “God Bless America” had critics: some objected on aesthetic grounds (directed towards the song itself or Smith’s performance), or considered the song’s expression of patriotic sentiments shallow, opportunistic, or exclusionary. Others were opposed on financial grounds, believing that capitalizing on the song’s patriotic sentiments was exploitative, although Berlin shrewdly donated his royalties to a special fund for the Boy...