Pete Seeger: Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

On July 26, 1956, the House of Representatives voted 373 to 9 to cite Pete Seeger and seven others (including playwright Arthur Miller) for contempt, as they failed to cooperate with House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their attempts to investigate alleged subversives and communists. Pete Seeger testified before the HUAC in 1955.
In one of Pete's darkest moments, when his personal freedom, his career, and his safety were in jeopardy, a flash of inspiration ignited this song. The song was stirred by a passage from Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "And Quie Flows the Don". Around the world the song traveled and in 1962 at a UNICEF concert in Germany, Marlene Dietrich, Academy Award-nominated German-born American actress, first performed the song in French, as "Qui peut dire ou vont les fleurs?" Shortly after she sang it in German. The song's impact in Germany just after WWII was shattering. It's universal message, "let there be peace in the world" did not get lost in its translation. To the contrary, the combination of the language, the setting, and the great lyrics has had a profound effect on people all around the world. May it have the same effect today and bring renewed awareness to all that hear it.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• folk
• Pete
• Seeger
• Where
• Have
• All
• the
• Flowers
• Gone?
• Anti-War
• Peace
• Protest
• Song
• Spadecaller

[sanyalindrajit]

They make us fight with ourselves for their personal gains, let us comeforward and say NO TO WAR.

[heartfire451]

I will cry my eyes out the day Pete dies. He is a true treasure of a human being. I am a young person and still think his music rules. Music from my generation is mostly vile garbage. Many blessings upon Pete Seeger.

[fetch53]

I Cry for all women and men

[chatterbox0j13]

@TheWolfsblut72

ich kann dir nur zustimmen mein Uropa war im Krieg er sagte immer wieder das es das schlimmste ist und ehe er wieder in den Krieg müsse erschieße er sich

[chatterbox0j13]

Politiker starten Kriege ohne selber in den Krieg zu ziehen anstatt ihrer werden Soldaten geschickt pfui

GOTT BITTE LASSE DIE WELT NIE MEHR IN KRIEG UNTER GEHEN SCHENKE EINIGKEIT ZWISCHEN NATIONEN UND RELIGIONEN AMEN

[59witbrowneyez]

where are sent in to fight a war that the Politicians start

[fetch53]

For Gordon

[folkguy69]

@heartfire451 I'm an "oldster" as Pete sometimes refers to himself as, but it thrills my heart to see that young people like yourself will be around to keep his work, legacy and everything he stands for alive. Your generation must keep the fire burning in the hopes that maybe someday we might not have to continue asking this age-old question. 

[grindsmygearsAU]

When will they ever learn...

[hackingmoddinghelper]

I may be of this new generation but my mom used to sing this to me when I would cry or when I was and to this day I sing it to myself whenever I am sad.