LOUIS P. MASUR
Historian who writes and lectures about a range of topics including Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, the Founding Fathers, visual culture, and the history of Rock and Roll.
His forthcoming book is From Presley to Springsteen: Ten Songs that Defined Rock and Roll. Pre-Order via the link below.
Masur's Lincoln's Hundred Days was awarded the 2013 Lincoln Institute Book Prize.
In 2026, The Wall Street Journal called Autumn Glory one of the five best books on the World Series.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Date: Tuesday, 11/17/26
Time: 10:00 AM EST
Location: Morris Museum
6 Normandy Heights Road
Morristown, NJ 07960
Buy Tickets:
Photographs That Changed America
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From Presley to Springsteen:
Ten Songs that Defined Rock and Roll
The first decades of the rock and roll era changed popular music forever and introduced songs that remain beloved standards over a half-century later. But what did it feel like in the rooms where those songs were being written, recorded, and mixed? What creative alchemy and happy accidents transpired to turn these records into classics?
This book examines ten of the rock era’s most iconic songs, including Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” Along the way, it reveals how singers like Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin reimagined “Hound Dog” and “Respect” through their sheer force of personality. It also takes you inside the studio to see how producers George Martin, Phil Spector, and Brian Wilson created a symphony of sounds. Other chapters explore how the lyrics of “Satisfaction,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” and “What’s Going On” gave voice to the feelings of a new generation. Writing with a historian’s careful attention to detail and a fan’s love for music, Louis Masur invites us to hear these enduring songs anew.
"Brisk and learned, engaging and illuminating, Louis Masur's A Journey North takes us along on one of the great road trips in American history. We can never know too much about the Founders, and this excellent book is a wonderful contribution to the ongoing project of understanding how our nation came to be."
-- Jon Meacham
A Journey North
A storied friendship between two of America's founders--one that endured for fifty years--and the roadtrip that forged it.
Between May 21 and June 16, 1791, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison went on a trip together through Upstate New York and parts of New England on horseback. This "northern journey" came at a moment of tension for the new nation, one in whose founding these Virginians and political allies had played key roles. The Constitution was ratified and President Washington was in his first term of office. Whether the country could overcome regional and political differences and remain unified, however, was still very much in question. Hence why some observers at the time wondered whether this excursion into Federalist New England by the two most prominent southern Democratic-Republicans, both future presidents, had an ulterior motive.
The Northern Journey was also about friendship. Madison later recalled that the trip made Jefferson and him "immediate companions," solidifying a bond with almost no peer in the annals of American history, one that thrived for fifty years. Jefferson declared at the end of his life, that his friendship with Madison had been "a source of constant happiness" to him. This book reveals the moment when it took hold.