Ronald E. Bornstein
What Is America to Me? Songs about the United States of America
Monday 10.08.2026
How to watch
Summary
To mark this 250th year of the United States of America, Ronald E. Bornstein discusses an assortment of tunes on the nation and its emblems of war and in peace. His presentation features works by Francis Scott Key, Samuel A. Ward and Katherine Lee Bates, John Philip Sousa, George M. Cohan, George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Woody Guthrie, and Stephen Sondheim.
Come Along and Listen!
Ronald E. Bornstein
Ronald E. Bornstein is an international lawyer who has practiced in New York, Paris, San Francisco, and London. He is a member of Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and a Lifetime Member of the Pacific Pension & Investment Institute (PPI). He was a Ford Foundation Fellow at the Academy of International Law at The Hague and a visiting Fulbright Professor at the University of Dakar. Ron grew up in Manhattan and is a lifelong student of the “Great American Songbook” and American music from 1920 to 1970.
Watch video of Ronald E. Bornstein in Conversation with Barry Kester, author of Round in Circles, the Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel, at Jewish Book Week, London 2025: JewishLiteraryFoundation.co.uk