Following up on his earlier examination of the treatment of politics by African-American blues and gospel singers during the presidential administration of Franklin Roosevelt (Roosevelt's Blues, 1997), freelance writer van Rijn brings his analysis into the Truman and Eisenhower eras. Again attempting to survey all known material, he examines how singers dealt with political topics in chapters looking at characterizations of the person of the president, views of the nuclear bomb, racial discrimination, the war in Korea, and economics. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR