Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Humble Origins
Chapter 2: A Rising Talent
Chapter 3: Hot Music in a Strange Time
Chapter 4: An Independent Musician
Chapter 5: Fully Free African American
Chapter 6: Looking to a New Future
Chapter 7: International Icon
Chapter 8: The Soundtrack of the American Experience

About the Author

David Stricklin is professor of history and head of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. With Bill C. Malone, he has also written Southern Music/American Music. He lives in Little Rock, AK.

Reviews

In Stricklin's biography, Louis Armstrong: The Soundtrack on the American Experience, he gives us a very compelling revisit to the total majesty of Louis Armstrong. . . . His book re-illuminates the greatness that he consistently displayed on trumpet and vocals but also puts the spotlight on Louis's impact on society and culture at large from the vantage point of a pioneering African-American artist. His stances on mistreatment and injustices give us the full picture of Mr. Armstrong the human being and how we are deeply in his debt for showing us the way musically, socially, spiritually, and humanly! This book is a must have for all to remind us the toll we pay to Armstrong every time we pick up an instrument or enjoy freedoms that he, along with other ancestors, felt were entitled to his race, the human race!
*James Carter*