The Guitar and the New World

A transformative look at a popular instrument and a hidden chapter of American history. The American guitar, that lightweight wooden box with a long neck, hourglass figure, and six metal strings, has evolved over five hundred years of social turmoil to become a nearly magical object-the most popular musical instrument in the world. In The Guitar and the New World , Joe Gioia offers a many-limbed social history that is as entertaining as it is informative. After uncovering the immigrant experienc