A powerful story of how, exactly, we fool ourselves into thinking the past is past... taking us across a century of spinout marketing campaigns, protests and versions that emerged from Foster's lyrics... [Bingham's] identity—and its many complications—is vital to her authority as a needed writer of this book.
~The Washington Post
In an America at war with itself, this book seems to arrive just in time.
~The New York Times
I was taken aback by how the song and its history, and Foster's own history, are so much a part of our ongoing story. Bingham's writing is compelling, and humbling, and moving.
~Rosanne Cash, singer, songwriter, and author
Beautifully written... deeply personal... riveting... a love letter—but one with tears in the eyes—to the Commonwealth of Kentucky [that] has a serious and important national reach"
~Louisville Courier Journal
Immersive and well-honed... [Bingham] astutely analyzes the song's reinterpretation by Black artists and activists... an invigorating and eye-opening cultural history.
~Publishers Weekly
Thoughtful... intensely moral... [Bingham] covers a spectacular amount of ground, from the origins of the song before the Civil War up to the present day... Engrossing twists and turns come with every chapter.
~Chapter 16
Bingham asks readers to think critically about a song cherished by many and to consider the price of nostalgia.
~Library Journal
Emily Bingham has painstakingly created a history quilt out of the intricacies of the profound effects of a single song on American culture. The result is wonder and dismay—and a lesson for today in how propaganda works. She delves into some of the deepest issues America has ever faced, issues that are still unresolved. This book is not simply about lyrics of a song but how that song has been used to tell a lie.
~Bobbie Ann Mason, author of In Country and Dear Ann
One song, in Emily Bingham's brilliant hands, brings history and memory together in ways all Americans must confront if we are ever truly to hear one another.
~Timothy Tyson, author of New York Times bestseller The Blood of Emmett Till
This is transformative work. Bingham has composed an engrossing narrative that reminds us that rarely is a song just a song.
~Emily Bernard, author of Black is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine
Bingham tells a personal and passionate history of how a song revered in her home state has been understood and misunderstood for generations and what it says about America's continued struggle to understand race. Her writing is as lovely as the song's melody; her argument is as jarring as its lyrics.
~Joe Drape, author of New York Times bestseller American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner's Legendary Rise
