"The World Turned Upside Down" is an English ballad. It was first published on a broadside in the middle of the 1640s as a protest against the policies of Parliament relating to the celebration of Christmas.
Parliament believed the holiday should be a solemn occasion, and outlawed traditional English Christmas celebrations, which were seen as too closely associated with Catholicism. There are several versions of the lyrics. It is sung to the tune of another ballad, "When the king enjoys his own again".
Its origin is in the Scripture: "But the other Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. (6) And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus." Acts 17:5âÂÂ7
According to American legend, the British Army band under Lord Cornwallis played this tune when they surrendered after the Siege of Yorktown (1781). Customarily, the British Army would have played an American or French tune in tribute to the victors, but General Washington refused them the honours of war and insisted that they play "a British or German march." Although American history textbooks continue to propagate the legend, the story is almost certain to have been apocryphal as it first appears in the historical record a century after the surrender.
The following is the text found in the Thomason Tracts (669. f. 10 (47)), dated 8 April 1646.
This song was recorded by Maddy Prior with The Carnival Band on their album Hang Up Sorrow and Care.
A different song with the same title was written by Leon Rosselson, and made popular by Billy Bragg.
Another song also called "The World Turned Upside Down" is sung by Chumbawamba on their album English Rebel Songs 1381-1984.
The song is referenced in the novel Burr by Gore Vidal.
This song is referenced in the 2015 Broadway musical Hamilton in the song "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)".
In 1972, the Marxist historian Christopher Hill published The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution . In a review of this book for the publisher Routledge historians Harman Bhogal and Liam Haydon wrote:
In 2019 a sculpture by Mark Wallinger titled "The World Turned Upside Down" was unveiled on the campus of the London School of Economics. It is a political globe with the south pole on top. It is in diameter and displays the nations and borders of the United Nations.
The song is repeatedly referred to in Robertson Davies' novel Murther and Walking Spirits as being popular among loyalists during the American revolution.