Guerrilla Minstrels

Library Journal

This reworked political science dissertation is an intensely personal interpretation of the role the men of the title have had in the American left and in popular culture. Using the terms ``playing mind games,'' ``mind guerrilla,'' ``heroic personage,'' and ``cult'' with irritating repetitiveness, Hampton analyzes the life and work of each man, finally concluding that one must always ``be on guard against millionaire superstars who image themselves to be workingclass heroes.'' A heartfelt criticism of hero worship and the ``cult of originality,'' this is not a musicological study nor is the ethnomusicological idea that music enculturates addressed as such. The emphasis is on songster cults, not song culture. For public and academic libraries. Bonnie Jo Dopp, District of Columbia P.L., Washington, D.C.