Table of Contents

• Introduction: Why Springsteen? - Jonathan D. Cohen and June Skinner Sawyers
• Part I Springsteen Stories
• 1 Growing Up with Bruce Springsteen - Eric Alterman
• 2 How Bruce Springsteen Made a Middle-Aged Woman Believe in the Magic of Rock and Roll - Nancy S. Bishop
• 3 From the Backstreets to the Badlands: My Springsteen Journey - Deepa Iyer
• 4 The Ripple Effect - Frank Stefanko
• Part II Springsteen, Politics, and American Society
• 5 The Role of the Popular Artist in a Democratic Society - Jefferson Cowie and Joel Dinerstein
• 6 Starting a Fire: Bruce Springsteen's Political Journey from "Born in the U.S.A." to "American Skin (41 Shots)" - Gillian G. Gaar
• 7 Springsteen's American Dream - Louis P. Masur
• 8 At the River - Paul Muldoon
• 9 The Ties That Bind - A. O. Scott
• Part III Springsteen Live
• 10 Live at the Roxy - Greil Marcus
• 11 The Magic Circle - Wesley Stace
• 12 Twist and Shout - David L. Ulin
• Part IV Springsteen the Artist
• 13 Brilliant Disguise: The Completely True Fictional Adventures of Bruce Springsteen - Peter Ames Carlin
• 14 Interview with Martyn Joseph by Irwin H. Streight
• 15 This Train: Bruce Springsteen as Public Artist - Colleen J. Sheehy
• 16 Born to Write: Bruce Springsteen, Flannery O'Connor, and the Songstory - Irwin H. Streight
• 17 Ten Great Springsteen Moments (and Five Iconic Concerts) - Kenneth Womack
• Part V Springsteen, Sex, Race, and Gender
• 18 Our Butch Mother, Bruce Springsteen - Natalie Adler
• 19 Springsteen's Women: Tougher Than the Rest - Gina Barreca
• 20 Shackled and Drawn - Lauren Onkey
• 21 American Skin: Springsteen and Blackness - Elijah Wald
• Part VI Springsteen and Aging
• 22 Summer's Fall: Springsteen in Senescence - Jim Cullen
• 23 Work and Play: Mid-Life Music - Daniel Wolff
• Part VII Springsteen beyond Borders
• 24 Bruce Springsteen's River in Dublin - Dermot Bolger
• 25 The Boss in Bulgaria - Richard Russo
• 26 We Take Care of Our Own - Wayne Swan
• Acknowledgments
• Notes on Contributors
• Index

About the Author

Jonathan D. Cohen received his PhD in history from the University of Virginia. He is the managing editor of BOSS: The Biannual Online-Journal of Springsteen Studies and the coeditor of All In: The Spread of Gambling in Twentieth-Century United States (2018).

June Skinner Sawyers has published extensively on Bruce Springsteen, including Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader (2004) and Workingman: The Faith-Based Politics ofBruce Springsteen (2014). Born in Glasgow, she currently teaches humanities courses at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Reviews

It is not surprising, then, that the most thought-provoking essays in Long Walk Home are by writers who are not from the stereotypical Springsteen fan base." -Times Literary Supplement

"Long Walk Home: Reflections on Bruce Springsteen at 70 offers a comprehensive, timely overview of Springsteen's life and work. The eminently qualified essayists in Sawyers and Cohen's anthology astutely address Springsteen's achievement in terms of the artist's evolving legacy, with a valuable accent upon exploring his lasting contributions to twentieth- and twenty-first- century popular music and culture." -Kenneth Womack, author of Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles

"A killer collection of Boss studies and stories, as varied as Springsteen's own body of work and a fitting tribute to the man at 70, both an American legend and an artist as vital as ever." -Christopher Phillips, Editor of Backstreets.com

"Taken together, the 26 essays in Long Walk Home give readers a rich understanding of why the Boss matters so profoundly to his audience; how each of us has been moved, challenged, and shaped by Springsteen's music." -Roxanne Harde, co-editor of Walking the Line: Country Music Lyricists and American Culture