This illustrated history traces the transformation of the banjo from primitive folk instrument to sophisticated musical machine and, in the process, offers a view of the music business in 19th-century America. Philip Gura and James Bollman chart the evolution of ""America's instrument"", the five-stringed banjo, from its origins in the gourd instruments of enslaved Africans brought to the New World in the 17th century through its rise to the very pinnacle of American popular culture at the turn of the 20th century. Throughout, they show how banjo craftsmen and manufacturers developed, built and marketed their products to an American public immersed in the production and consumption of popular music. With over 250 illustrations - including rare period photographs, minstrel broadsides, sheet music covers, and banjo tutors and tune books - ""America's Instrument"" brings to life a significant aspect of American cultural history.