The secular music made and heard in the streets, concert halls, dives, ballrooms and parlors of both sides embroiled in the American Civil War expressed the diversity of its composers, performers, and audiences. Author Cornelius tells us popular music was a powerful tool for slavers, the enslaved, populists, the new upper crust, the military and abolitionists, and gives examples of the songs of the home front as well as those of the rallies and battles. Cornelius describes the antebellum era, the new technologies of music publishing that graced many a family spinet, the impact of African Americans in popular music, the politics of the more rarefied concert halls, and the various efforts to heal through music after the war ended. He includes biographies of musicians of the era and a dictionary of Civil War music. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)