Overview

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (1912-67) has had an immense impact on popular culture throughout the world. His folk music brought traditional song from the rural communities of the American southwest to the urban American listener and, through the global influence of American culture, to listeners and musicians alike throughout Europe and the Americas. Similarly, his use of music as a medium of social and political protest has created a new strategy for campaigners in many countries. But Guthrie's music was only one aspect of his multifaceted life. His labour-union activism helped embolden the American working class, and united such distinct groups as the rural poor, the urban proletariat, merchant seamen and military draftees, contributing to the general call for workers' rights during the 1930s and 1940s. As well as penning hundreds of songs (both recorded and unrecorded), Guthrie was also a prolific writer of non-sung prose, writing regularly for the American communist press, producing volumes of autobiographical writings and writing hundreds of letters to family, friends and public figures. Furthermore, beyond music Guthrie also expressed his creative talents through his numerous pen-and-ink sketches, a number of paintings and occasional forays into poetry. This collection provides a rigorous examination of Guthrie's cultural significance and an evaluation of both his contemporary and posthumous impact on American culture and international folk-culture. The volume utilizes the rich resources presented by the Woody Guthrie Foundation.

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Reviews

Classified as 'Research Essential' by Baker & Taylor YBP Library Services A Yankee Book Peddler UK Core Title for 2011 'Making excellent use of material from the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives in New York, this book examines Woody's image, his songwriting, his politics and his friendships. In the process, a few myths are questioned and some new dimensions of his life and work are revealed. The result is a welcome portrait of Woody as a twentieth century figure with much to offer to the twenty-first. The book serves as an excellent introduction to Guthrie's work as well as providing unexpected perspectives even for those of us who thought we knew all about him.' Dave Laing, Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool, UK '... a welcome addition to the scholarly literature. It should especially interest students of American folk music and American culture... Recommended.' Choice 'The contributors to this fantastic edited volume effectively answer the questions posed by Jorge Arevalo Mateus in the foreword: What is the source of Guthrie's enduring cultural value? Why are artists and academics alike drawn to the mythology and reality of his life and times? . Using recent and traditional analytical frameworks from a variety of disciplines, these scholars unpack Guthrie's expressive practices, iconicity, and political aesthetics. This volume ushers in a new generation of scholarship in Guthrie Studies . This book would be helpful in both undergraduate classes and graduate seminars. Classes that focus on the formation of artist identities, twentieth-century American popular music, the Dust Bowl, music and migration, and Bob Dylan would find many articles in this volume enlightening.' Journal of Folklore Research 'In every sense an excellent book, exciting, surprising and enlightening!' Folker 'This collection of essays contains a considerable wealth of information about Woody Guthrie: his music, his political principles, and his life and work beyond writing and performing songs, are all explored in detail. Much of this detail debunks myths about Guthrie, while exploring the creation and persistence of such myths. The book examines these subjects from the perspective of Guthrie's songs, his self-mythologizing, and his relationships with some of the most important figures who contributed to his life and work. The result is an engrossing [...] study of one of the most important figures in twentieth century popular culture.' Popular Music History 'This is thrilling and illuminative, sometimes surprising. Legends and myths are questioned and new insight uncovered.' FolkWorld '... the book offers some fascinating glimpses into the wealth of material in the Woody Guthrie Archives and the variety of ways in which his work could be interpreted...' Journal of American Studies 'This is a fine collection and a wonderful tribute to the life and career of Woody Guthrie. There is a mellifluous continuity between the chapters and sections that accumulates to a greater understanding of Guthrie's talent and political worldview; it is also, primarily in its first part and due in the main to its editorial provenance, an important scholarly contribution to a utopian understanding not just of Guthrie in particular but of popular musical culture.' Utopian Studies 'Serious students of Guthrie and American folk music will want this book - the contributors to a man (yes, they all are men) exhibit a tremendous command of the primary and secondary literature, and their interpretations dig deep.' American Music Review

Author Information

John S. Partington has published five books, including Building Cosmopolis: The Political Thought of H.G. Wells (Ashgate, 2003), H.G. Wells in Nature, 1893-1946: A Reception Reader (2008) and The Reception of H.G. Wells in Europe (2005). His special interest is in political biography, having published on George Orwell, Phoebe Cusden, Lorenzo Quelch, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi and Clara Zetkin. He is currently researching the reception and influence of Clara Zetkin in Britain. John S. Partington. Jorge Arevalo Mateus. Richard Nate. Will Kaufman. Mark Allan Jackson. Martin Butler, Martin Butler. Jeff Morgan. Frank Erik Pointner, Ronald D. Cohen. Ed Cray. D.A. Carpenter.

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