Does anybody know who Bruce Springsteen is?

Next week my u.s. history class is to read Jim Cullen's Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition. But I have come to realize that the majority of the students in my class don't know really who Bruce Springsteen is. This is quite traumatic for me...almost as bad as the day that I came to realize that many students in my class had never seen Star Wars. It will be interesting to see how the class discussion goes. I anticipate that many will resist this book because Springsteen bucked his traditional political stance in the last presidential election by coming out to endorse the democrat candidate John Kerry. He even gave a concert in Madison, Wisconsin during his campaign. This, in light of the infamous George Will/Ronald Reagan fiasco of trying to co-opt "Born in the U.S.A." as a purely Republican Party themes song in the early 80s makes me think that the students in my class will resist Springsteen. But I also think that they will be forced to like "the Boss" after they read the way Cullen depicts him. The musician is an inheritor of the American tradition that descended from Emerson, Whitman, Guthrie, and Dylan, argues Cullen. They are all focused on representative government or republicanism as the expression of American ideas. Thus they key on people who are "plowman" but who, through individualism and a commitment to the community, become more than actors of republicanism, but professors of republicanism. Who can argue with this message? We'll see if my famous "Communist Fascist" student has something to say. If W.E.B. DuBois is a Communist Fascist, what does that make Springsteen?