Course Catalog: Bruce Springsteen’s American Vision

College Matters from The Chronicle · Aug 5, 2025 · 31m

For decades, Bruce Springsteen’s songs about fast cars, working-class dreamers, and loves lost and found have helped to define a quintessentially American notion of freedom and rebellion. But do the music and lyrics of “The Boss” speak to the college students of Gen Z? Louis P. Masur, a distinguished professor of American studies and history at Rutgers University, thinks they do. After years of teaching a course titled “Springsteen’s American Vision,” Masur says he is as convinced as ever that the rock icon’s songs are as timeless as Huck Finn and as durable as a “big old Buick.”

Guest: Louis…