This definitive story of American folk music focuses on how a minority music genre suddenly became the emergent voice of a generation at the end of the Eisenhower years. The book shows how the social issues of early rural folk music were adapted by young people in the late fifties as college students bought guitars and banjos, attended hootenannies, and marched on the Capital for Civil Rights. From Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley" in 1958 to Bob Dylan's electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, folk influenced American culture and eventually became absorbed into popular music. The author also explores how authentic folk is now experiencing a second revival, taking its place in our contemporary fascination with roots music.The first non-academic text to probe the cultural and musical significance of the folk revival of 1958 to 1965. The only historical text on the American folk revival to examine both traditional and popular performers and to provide a thorough analysis of the era's music.First music history text to present a new reading of the American folk revival's development and provide a reinterpretation of the revival's decline.The only text to offer a compact history that exclusively centres on the music, artists, and social panorama of American folk music between 1958 and 1965.