| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Proud to Be an Okie: Cultural Politics, Country Music, and Migration to Southern California. By Peter La Chapelle. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. xiv, 350 pp. Cloth, $60.00, ISBN 978-0-520-24888-5. Paper, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-520-24889-2.)
Peter La Chapelle's study of country music in southern California from the depths of the Great Depression to the 1970s is thoughtful, carefully researched, and well written. It is a superb piece of scholarship on the evolution of Okie migrants into white-collar, suburban conservatives.	1
La Chapelle argues that by the 1930s anti-immigrant activism, eugenics, and popular culture created an anti-Okie racial stereotype. As a result, Okie migrants moved slowly toward a solid middle-class identity. Along the way, country music provided the impetus for social and political activism. Through country lyrics, concerts, and radio shows Okies were galvanized politically.	2
As a hostile media stereotyped Okies, they listened to Woody Guthrie and Maxine "Lefty Lou" Crissman's radio show on Los Angeles' kfvd. With an increased frequency, Guthrie communicated his liberal-populist message through political topics rather than hillbilly songs. The large number of letters from Okies to KFVD illustrated their political response to Guthrie's program.	. . .

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