The Barnegat branch of the Ocean County Library will host “The Fiddle in America” on Thursday, Feb. 28, at 2 p.m. The program features music and a high-energy conversation with Matthew Backes about the fiddle’s role in historical tradition, its cultural influence and its style and technique.

This program is made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities Public Scholars Project and the Friends of the Barnegat Library.

A professor at Rutgers University Departmentof American Studies, Backes is a cultural and intellectual historian of the United States. His research interests include the history of the family, religion, and cultural authority in the 19th century as well as folk music and the meaning of tradition from the late 19th century to…