The Product of Our Souls: Ragtime, Race, and the Birth of the Manhattan Musical Marketplace

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Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Commendation Quotes: "The Product of Our Souls" has the potential to be one of the most important works of urban cultural history produced in the last twenty years. For so long, the stories of the Johnson Brothers, the Marshall Hotel, James Reese Europe, and others have been used to close the curtains on minstrelsy or open the doors of the New Negro Renaissance. But here we see a cogent and fully developed story of its own, the story of a ragtime modernity, the period where race is identified as a key conduit in the creation of the American musical marketplace.--Davarian L. Baldwin, author of "Chicago's New Negroes: Modernity, the Great Migration, and Black Urban Life"Commendation Quotes: You might think you already know the story of the birth of ragtime, but "The Product of Our Souls" gives us an entirely fresh look at this musical expression of African American modernity. David Gilbert provides readers with a new understanding of the creative autonomy and power of African American composers, musicians, and playwrights as they shaped the future of American popular music in relation to white supremacy and an emerging consumer culture.--Barry Shank, author of "The Political Force of Musical Beauty"

Contributor Bio:  Gilbert, David David Gilbert is an independent scholar.