No candidate for President of the United States was ever elected or rejected because of a song, but since 1800 the campaign song appeared constantly (until 1964) amidst the paraphernalia of the electoral process. These songs, usually set to the common tunes of their day, were printed and distributed in the form of books or pamphlets named songsters. Until now, few serious studies of the American presidential campaign songster have been written. This vital work by William Miles brings bibliographic control to the study of the American presidential campaign by focusing on each campaign's songsters from 1840 to 1964.

The book is arranged chronologically according to election campaigns, and within each campaign by winner, loser, and third party candidates. Each entry contains information on authors, lyricists, or composers as determined from song title-pages, the volume itself, or other sources. Complete titles and imprint data follow within each entry, along with descriptive notes and references to libraries holding copies of the volume cited. Appendixes include a campaign song discography and a checklist of secondary sources. Songs, Odes, Glees, and Ballads should prove to be of great value to music librarians, curators of special collections, political scientists with an interest in national election campaigns, historians, and collectors of and dealers in political Americana.