When Colleges Sang is an illustrated history of the rich culture of college singing from the earliest days of the American republic to the present.

 

Before fraternity songs, alma maters, and the rahs of college fight songs became commonplace, students sang. Students in the earliest American colleges created their own literary melodies that they shared with their classmates. As J. Lloyd Winstead documents in When Colleges Sang, college singing expanded in conjunction with the growth of the nation and the American higher education system.

 

While it was often simply an entertaining pastime, singing had other subtle and not-so-subtle effects. Singing indoctrinated students into the life of formal and informal student organizations as well as encouraged them to conform to college rituals and celebrations. University faculty used songs to reinforce the religious practices and ceremonial observances that their universities supported. Students used singing for more social purposes: students sang to praise their peer’s achievements (and underachievements), mock the faculty, and provide humor. In extreme circumstances, they sang to intimidate classmates and faculty, and to defy college authorities. Singing was, and is, an intrinsic part of campus culture.

 

J. Lloyd Winstead is associate director of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at the University of Georgia.

 

"Winstead covers more than 300 years of American higher education, providing a wealth of detail about a diverse number of colleges in an accessible volume. Higher education historians and practitioners in
“In this impressively researched and well written history, Lloyd Winstead describes college singing, always with an eye toward how, in Winstead’s words, this ‘seemingly small component of college life has had a broad and far-reaching impact on college traditions.’ And since he is careful to contextualize, this book is as much about the history of higher education in America as it is about its vocal music.”
—Georgia Writers Association

“When Colleges Sang is an original, significant contribution to the literature on the history of higher education writ large. The archival research is thorough and often involves tracking down and analyzing documents heretofore unexamined and/or underappreciated. This book continually brings new episodes, variations, events, and interpretations that makes one rethink the whole conceptualization of campus life.”
—John R. Thelin, author of A History of American Higher Education and Games Colleges Play

 

“J. Lloyd Winstead’s When Colleges Sang demonstrates tremendous originality and merit. I have little doubt that this work will immediately become the standard bearer in the scholarship of campus song and thereby campus life. Two important strengths of the book involve the depth and breadth of the scholarship used by the author as well as the use of varied examples from multiple institutions to advance the analysis.”
—Amy Wells Dolan, associate dean of the School of Education and associate professor of leadership and counselor education at the University of Mississippi