Star-Spangled Banner: The Unlikely Story of America’s National Anthem

Almost every American knows “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but no one ever recounted its long history of controversy and the story of how it came to be our national anthem in 1931 until the publication of Star-Spangled Banner: The Unlikely Story of America’s National Anthem (Johns Hopkins University Press).

Supported in part by a fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History, the acclaimed book is based on primary sources consulted at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the Maryland Historical Society, the Pratt Library, Fort McHenry National Monument and Historical Shrine and the New York Public Library.