The immeasurably famous Irving Berlin seems like the perfect example of a U.S. immigrant success story. But reality is complicated and imperfect, and so was Berlin’s music-filled life.
Research:

Bergreen, Laurence. “Irving Berlin: This Is the Army.” Prologue. Summer 1996, Vol. 28, No. 2 https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1996/summer/irving-berlin-1
Carlson, Olivia. “What’s White Christmas without Minstrelsy?” Music 345: Race, Identity, and Representation in American Music. Student Blogs and Library Exhibit Companion. https://pages.stolaf.edu/americanmusic/2021/10/25/whats-white-christmas-without-minstrelsy/
CBS Sunday Morning. “American songsmith Irving Berlin.” Via YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV9uq8z2k5E
Greten, Paula Anne. “Irving Berlin.” American History. August 2006.
Hamm, Charles. “Irving Berlin -- Songs from the Melting Pot: The Formative Years, 1907-1914.” Oxford University Press. Via New York Times. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hamm-berlin.html
Hamm, Charles. “Alexander and His Band.” American Music , Spring, 1996, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Spring, 1996). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3052459
Hyland, William G. “The Best Songwriter Of Them All.” Commentary. October 1990.
"Irving Berlin." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture Online, Gale, 2013. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K2419200098/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=be3b3028. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.
Jewish Lives. “Irving Berlin.” Podcast. Episode 4. 11/18/2019.
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Judaism Unbound. “Bonus Episode: Irving Berlin – Judah Cohen (American Jewish History #5).” Podcast. Episode 248, October 2 2019.
Kaplan, James. “Irving Berlin: New York Genius.” Yale University Press. 2019.
Kennedy Center. “This Land is Your Land: The story behind the song.” https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-interactives/media/music/story-behind-the-song/the-story-behind-the-song/this-land-is-your-land/
Magee, Jeffrey. "'Everybody Step': Irving Berlin, jazz, and Broadway in the 1920s." Journal of the American Musicological Society, vol. 59, no. 3, fall 2006, pp. 697+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A157180372/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=07c374cd. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.
Markel, Howard. “How Irving Berlin’s blue skies turned to blue days.” PBS NewsHour. 9/24/2021. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-irving-berlins-blue-skies-turned-to-blue-days
Maslon, Laurence. “Overture.” (And following pages) The Irving Berlin Music Company. https://www.irvingberlin.com/overture
Schiff, David. “For Everyman, By Everyman.” The Atlantic Monthly. March 1996.
Spitzer, Nick. “The Story Of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land'.” NPR. 2/15/2012. https://www.npr.org/2000/07/03/1076186/this-land-is-your-land
The Irving Berlin Music Company. “Irving Berlin.” https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57d1974abe6594a72075321b/t/5a5f673eec212d2269841cf4/1516201791369/Irving+Berlin+-+official+biography.pdf
White, Timothy. “Irving Berlin Knew Pop Music’s Power.” Billboard. Vol. 111, Issue 21. 5/22/1999.
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. v. Dieckhaus, 153 F.2d 893, 898 (8th Cir. 1946) https://casetext.com/case/twentieth-century-fox-film-corp-v-dieckhaus
Bornstein, George. "Say it with music." TLS. Times Literary Supplement, no. 5698, 15 June 2012, p. 9. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A667239228/LitRC?u=mlin_oweb&sid=googleScholar&xid=7d90f5a8. Accessed 2 Dec. 2022.
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