Protest song in East and West Germany since the 1960s /

Robb (German studies, Queen's University, Belfast) has edited a fascinating collection of essays on protest music in (mostly) modern Germany. He wrote five of the nine chapters: the first three--"The Reception of Vormarz and 1848 Revolutionary Song in West Germany and the GDR," "Muhsam, Brecht, Eisler, and the Twentieth-Century Revolutionary Heritage," and "Narrative Role-Play as Communication Strategy in German Protest Song"--and the last two, which look at "political song in the GDR" and techno in the "Berlin republic." Between these are fascinating discussions of the Burg Waldeck festivals (1964-69), Konstantin Wecker, and Wolf Biermann. All the essays are detailed and cover fresh ground in looking at the recent German musical/political landscape. The works cited includes audio and video recordings as well as print resources. The book's only drawback (for those without German): all quotations and song lyrics are in German, with no translations. Lack of illustrations is noteworthy. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, and faculty. R. D. Cohen emeritus, Indiana University Northwest