Bucky Halker has traveled across the country and around the world but he remains rooted in the Midwest, grounded in history. It is an approach he wishes his fellow Americans would embrace.

“America may be the one country in the world that has an interesting case of historical amnesia,” said Halker of Chicago. “We tend to view ourselves as the city on the hill, above it all. But knowing something about the past makes people think a little differently about the present.”

Join musician, author, and cultural historian Bucky Halker at 3 p.m. Monday, March 6, for “Ain’t Got a Dollar: Illinois Workers and Protest Songs, 1865-1965.” Well-known for his music-history programs on Woody Guthrie and the Great Depression, Halker will visit the McHenry County Historical Society Museum, 6422 Main St. in Union, as part of the 31st annual Sampler Lecture Series.

Halker uses a blend of performance, audience participation, commentary and discussion as he reviews a century of songs from Illinois workers.

“There are a lot of parallels between songs in the 19th century and now,” he said.

Tickets are available in the office, online or at the door. Series tickets are $35, and $30 for society members. A $10 donation is requested for individual programs.

For tickets, call (815) 923-2267 or visit www.GotHistory.org.

Illinois became the center of American working-class protest music, as coal miners, laborers, printers, iron workers, clothing workers, and their allies penned songs and poems for the cause.

Last year, he spent six months at Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, Germany, teaching students about the history of American workers and the history of protest music here. It does not surprise Halker one bit that political changes have refocused attention on the topic now.

“There are a lot of parallels between songs in the 19th century and now,” he said. “They might have had a higher sense of moral purpose then, but regardless the issues are still the same: Wages, hours, abusing people in the workplace and a discussion of what rights workers should have. It’s a struggle.”

All programs are at the society museum, 6422 Main St. in Union.