View from America illustration by Kate Copeland.

Five years ago, in January 2014, the US lost a great patriot, musician and internationalist when Pete Seeger died at the age of 94. In a time of resurgent and reactionary nationalism, I found myself reflecting on the five-string banjo picker’s example of how a deep love of country could be married to a thoroughgoing progressivism.

Some lives have the ability to capture the spirit of rapidly changing times, tracing the unsteady contours of political life. Pete Seeger had such a life.