Paul M. Gifford – författare

The last quarter of the twentieth-century saw a renewed interest in the hammered dulcimer in the United States at the grassroots level as well as from elements of the Folk Revival. This book offers the reader a discussion of the medieval origins of the dulcimer and its subsequent spread under many different names to other parts of the world. Drawing on articles the author has written in English as well as articles by specialists in their own languages, Gifford explains the history and evolution of the instrument. Special attention is paid to the North American tradition from the early 18th-century to the 1970s revival. Drawing from local histories, news clippings, photographs, and interviews, the book examines the playing of the dulcimer and its associated social meanings.

The last quarter of the twentieth-century saw a renewed interest in the hammered dulcimer in the United States at the grassroots level as well as from elements of the Folk Revival. This book offers the reader a discussion of the medieval origins of the dulcimer and its subsequent spread under many different names to other parts of the world. Drawing on articles the author has written in English as well as articles by specialists in their own languages, Gifford explains the history and evolution of the instrument. Special attention is paid to the North American tradition from the early 18th-century to the 1970s revival. Drawing from local histories, news clippings, photographs, and interviews, the book examines the playing of the dulcimer and its associated social meanings.

Inspired by the iconic American Guide Series published by the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s, this new guide to Flint, the Saginaw Valley, and the Thumb showcases the industrial-agricultural heart of Michigan, which has been beating irregularly for the last three decades, but whose importance to its people has lasted millennia. The ten counties featured in the book have lost population, industries, small farms, natural resources, and clean water. Instead of focusing on loss, the authors uncover the region’s unique history and culture, characterized by the productive tension between factories and farms, urban and rural spaces, labor and management, migrants and the mainstream, conservatives and progressives. The book documents the genesis of an ecological awareness that grew out of deforestation, habitat and species loss, and a succession of water crises. Encyclopedic in scope like their WPA forebears, the book is a functional guide that offers suggestions and strategies for enriching travel while celebrating the tenacity of those who came, worked, and stayed: lumberjacks, farmers, foundry workers, labor activists, judges, Indigenous peoples, African Americans, artists, poets, and environmental warriors.