Join us for a discussion with the cohort behind this fantastic co-authored book that establishes the protest song as a mode of political communication. Covering five centuries in England’s history, from street ballads and art song to grime, hymns, music hall, and punk, this book explores the causes that protest songs adopt, the conditions that give rise to them, and the institutions that have suppressed them.

Whether accompanying a march, a sit-in, or a confrontation with police, songs and protest are inextricably linked. As a tool for political activism, the protest song spells out the issues at the heart of each cause. Over a surprisingly long history, it has been used to spread ideas, inspire political imagination, and motivate political action.

The protest song is – and has always been – a form of political oratory as vital to political representation as it is to performance. Investigating five centuries of English history, Our Subversive Voice establishes that the protest song is not merely the preserve of singer-songwriters; it is a mode of political communication that has been used to confront many systems of oppression across its many genres, from street ballads to art song, grime to hymns, and music hall to punk. Our Subversive Voice traces the history of the protest song, examines its rhetorical forms, and explores the conditions of its genesis. It recounts how these songs have addressed discrimination and inequality, exploitation and the environment, and immigration and identity, and how institutions and organizations have sought both to facilitate and to suppress them. Drawing on a large and diverse corpus of songwriters, this book argues that song does more than accompany protest: it choreographs and communicates it.

The protest song, Our Subversive Voice shows, is an enduring, affecting, and effective means of expression and an essential element in understanding the drive to create political change, in the past and for the future.

Our speakers:

John Street is emeritus professor of politics at the University of East Anglia.

Oskar Cox Jensen is a NUAcT Fellow in music at Newcastle University.

Alan Finlayson is professor of political and social theory at the University of East Anglia.

Angela McShane is honorary reader in history at the University of Warwick.

Matthew Worley is professor of modern history at the University of Reading.

Advanced booking strongly recommended. Doors open at 6:45, event starts 7:00.

As always, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com, and a free ticket will be made available.

If you choose ‘book + entry’, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier, or arrange for delivery, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com.

Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00