{"product_id":"brassroots-democracy-benjamin-barson-9780819501141","title":"Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA new understanding of the birth of jazz through a fine-grained social history of early African American musicians\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2025 Robert M. Stevenson Award, presented by the American Musicological Society (AMS)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWinner of the Harry and Claire Brook Award, bestowed by the Harry Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation (The Graduate Center of The City University of New York)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinalist for the \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eMAAH Stone Book Award, bestowed by the Museum of African American History (2025)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHonorable mention for The Portia K. Maultsby Prize, granted by Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2026 Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Book Award, granted by the Caribbean Philosophical Association\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHonorable Mention for the \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e2026 IASPM-US Woody Guthrie Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBrassroots Democracy\u003c\/i\u003e recasts the birth of jazz, unearthing vibrant narratives of New Orleans musicians to reveal how early jazz was inextricably tied to the mass mobilization of freedpeople during Reconstruction and the decades that followed. Benjamin Barson presents a \"music history from below,\" following the musicians as they built communes, performed at Civil Rights rallies, and participated in general strikes. Perhaps most importantly, Barson locates the first emancipatory revolution in the Americas--Haiti--as a nexus for cultural and political change in nineteenth-century Louisiana. In dialogue with the work of recent historians who have inverted traditional histories of Latin American and Caribbean independence by centering the influence of Haitian activists abroad, this work traces the impact of Haitian culture in New Orleans and its legacy in movements for liberation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBrassroots Democracy\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates how Black musicians infused participatory music practice with innovative forms of grassroots democracy. Late nineteenth-century Black brass bands and activists rehearsed these participatory models through collective performance that embodied the democratic ethos of Black Reconstruction. Termed \"Brassroots Democracy,\" this fusion of political and musical spheres revolutionized both. \u003ci\u003eBrassroots Democracy\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates the Black Atlantic struggles that informed music-as-world-making from the Haitian Revolution through Reconstruction to the jazz revolution. The work theorizes the roots of the New Orleans brass band tradition in the social relations grown in maroon ecologies across the Americas. Their fruits contributed to the socio-sonic commons of the music we call jazz today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Benjamin Barson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 081950114X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780819501141\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Wesleyan University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/18\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 424\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Benjamin Barson","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48623570157823,"sku":"9780819501141","price":28.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/brassroots-democracy-benjamin-barson-9780819501141","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}