Listening for America: inside the great American songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim

Prologue : Nothing Comes from Nothing

Inventing America / Jerome Kern's "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man"

The New Sexual Morality / Cole Porter's "Let's Do It"

Airbrushing the Depression / George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm"

Segregation and Opportunity in Harlem / Harold Arlen's "Stormy Weather"

Appropriation or Inspiration? / George Gershwin's "Summertime"

Immigration and the American Voice / Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek"

How the Other Half Lived / Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine"

Love in New York / Richard Rodgers's "I Wish I Were in Love Again"

The Impact of Recorded Sound / Jerome Kern's "All the Things You Are"

America Goes to the Movies / Harold Arlen's "Over the Rainbow"

World War II and the Integrated Musical / Richard Rodgers's "If I Loved You"

America Gets a Classical Voice / Leonard Bernstein's "I Can Cook Too"

Will the Real Annie Oakley Please Stand Up? / Irving Berlin's "I Got the Sun in the Morning"

Fantasy in New York / Leonard Bernstein's "Tonight"

Rock and Roll, Broadway, and the Me Decade / Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns"

New Directions On and Off Broadway / Stephen Sondheim's "Finishing the Hat"

Epilogue : The Broadway Musical Goes Global.