Woody Guthrie, American Radical [review]

books & media | November 13, 2011 by | Comments Off

woody guthrie american radical will kaufman Woody Guthrie, American Radical [review]Among the things the politically astute can take away from the Occupy movement is that, in periods of economic hardship, moments of vivid cultural expression can reveal themselves. Today, colorful and creative posters and art visually represent the Occupy movement. However, some moments are far more rare. Leafing through Woody Guthrie, American Radical (University of Illnois Press, 2011), one is taken through a flash of U.S. history that will most assuredly never happen again, for many reasons.

Guthrie, the progressive folk singer and chronicler of countless political, labor and freedom struggles, rose to prominence before the Internet, cable television, music videos, MP3s, radio playlisting, reality shows and the half dozen other methods popular music makes its way to audiences today. From his political awakening during the Great Depression, author Will Kaufman paints a picture of a musician and activist whose accomplishments one cannot help but look upon in wonder.

For most people today, the only political act in memory to reach the mainstream in the last generation was Rage Against the Machine, which had an immersive media landscape and a formidable major recording label machine behind it. Guthrie’s cross-country musical shambling brought him in contact with the crushing poverty of New York City’s Skid Row to California’s bifurcated civil society of haves and have-nots. He wrote witheringly of music industry corruption and continued to enthusiastically perform and travel. A militant anti-racist, Guthrie’s World War II experiences made racial justice in the United States a passion; Kaufman reflects on final letters Guthrie wrote as Eisenhower ascended to power. And though many stories here are familiar to Guthrie devotees — his wartime service crystalizing his anti-fascist politics; his lifelong friendship with Pete Seeger; and bond with legendary writer and Klan infiltrator Stetson Kennedy, who died in August — Kaufman, who as a singer himself has performed musical examinations of Guthrie’s life, sprinkles lyrics influenced by each period throughout the book. Such a move adds a texture you might not otherwise expect.

Woody Guthrie, American Radical is an exhaustive look at a man who channeled his disillusionment as well as his optimism into song. By Kaufman’s estimation, that decades-long journey took Guthrie far, from battles with Browderite factions for the soul of the Communist Party to the “singing campaign” of what would be Henry Wallace’s campaign to too many brushes with violent reactionary mobs to count.With every word of hope lurked a word of menace; though the poor wanted what was fair, by Guthrie’s pen, extracting fariness was not off the table. Kaufman shares the life of a fiery man, idealistic as cynical, who in may ways embodies what we all are.

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