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Born to parents who loved and taught music, Pete Seeger fell in love with the banjo and folk music at an early age. Seeger left Harvard University in the middle of his sophomore year, setting out to absorb American folk music from its source in communities across the country. He formed his first folk group, The Almanac Singers, with Woody Guthrie and other musicians in 1940. They traveled throughout the U.S. and Mexico as singer-activists, bolstering labor movements and other social causes. In 1942 Seeger joined the U.S. Army and continued playing music, often performing for his fellow soldiers. In 1945, after being discharged from the Army as a corporal. Seeger founded People’s Songs, Inc., a musicians’ union helping bind the labor movement to folk music in an effort to advance both. In 1948 he co-founded the famous Weavers, a folk-singing quartet that recorded many hit songs. Many of Seeger’s recordings supported civil rights and the environment while protesting war.

After earning his PhD from Columbia University, Harvard Sitkoff went on to become a professor of history at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of New Deal for Blacks and the editor of 50 Years Later: The New Deal Evaluated. Sitkoff has also written A History of Our Time and The Struggle for Black Equality, 1954-1992.