About the Author

Philip F. Gura is William S. Newman Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is an old-time music enthusiast.|James F. Bollman is co-owner and manager of the Music Emporium in Lexington, Massachusetts. He plays clawhammer banjo and has been collecting and researching banjos and banjo-related ephemera for more than thirty years.

Reviews

[This book] makes it clear that the banjo is an essential constituent of what Greil Marcus once called 'that old, weird America."Times Literary Supplement"

�This book� makes it clear that the banjo is an essential constituent of what Greil Marcus once called 'that old, weird America."Times Literary Supplement"

"[This book] makes it clear that the banjo is an essential constituent of what Greil Marcus once called 'that old, weird America."Times Literary Supplement""

"America's Instrument" lavishly details the banjo from the pegface to tailpiece hanger bolt."Journal of American History"

A clear and extremely detailed account of the banjo in nineteenth-century America."American Historical Review"

A landmark publication."Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society"

We are given not only the rich history of the banjo but also a remarkable study of the American marketplace."Southern Cultures"