Searching for Woody Guthrie

Born in the summer of 1912, Woody Guthrie remains one of the most significant figures in American folk music to this day. While most Americans know his iconic anthem This Land Is Your Land, surprisingly few understand Guthries place in the greater context of American radicalism and protest in the 1930s and beyond. In Searching for Woody Guthrie, Ron Briley embarks on a chronological exploration of Guthries music in the vein of American radicalism and civil rights. Briley begins this journey with an overview of five key periods in Guthries life and, in the chapters that follow, analyses his political ideas through primary and secondary source materials. While numerous biographies on Woody Guthrie exist - including Guthries own 1943 autobiography - this book takes a different approach. Less biographical and more thematic in nature, Searching for Woody Guthrie centres around Guthries faith in the common working people of America, bringing together Peoples Daily World Woody Sez newspaper columns, Guthrie centennial secondary source texts, research in the Woody Guthrie Archives, and Brileys own personal reflections to present a narrative that is at once personal to the author and relatable to Americas rural working class. Interlacing Guthries music with his own geographic and economic background, Briley presents an original and eloquent chronology of Guthries life and work in what amounts to a compelling new case for why that work, more than fifty years after Guthries death, continues to leave its mark.