That was deliberate.”Ĭlague, an associate professor of musicology and American culture at the University of Michigan, has produced a work so encyclopedic, its chapters can be read per your inclination - if you are most interested in, say, what the anthem has represented to African Americans, turn to Chapter 8, “The Anthem and Black Lives.” But I recommend reading them in order, because doing so also proves the book’s thesis: that, contrary to popular myth, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was not forced on Americans by some imperious authority, but chosen by us, en masse and over decades. He set the word ‘free’ to a note so high nobody can reach it.

He knows of every tribute, genuine and forced, and he’s read all the criticisms of the national anthem’s jingoism, its triumphant militarism and its original lyrics’ inclusion of the word “slave,” but not the word “America.” In fact, his knowledge of the song’s history and its uses, benign and otherwise, is so comprehensive that I was surprised he didn’t quote my personal favorite, delivered by Belize in “Angels in America,” when he claims the slaveholder who wrote the national anthem “knew what he was doing. Mark Clague knows everything about “The Star-Spangled Banner,” including how you feel about it. O SAY CAN YOU HEAR? A Cultural Biography of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” by Mark Clague

Who wrote the star spangled banner song