| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 39.3

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 39.3 | The History Cooperative

*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. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95, paper.)
This book explores the history of country music culture in Southern California, from the mid-1930s to the early 1970s, a period that witnessed the "slow but unprecedented rightward turn in the politics and rhetoric of a white, blue-collar, country music listening America."	1
This is an ambitious study, not only because of the big story that La Chapelle tells, but also because he is treading ground that has already been well plowed. He presents a useful and well-told story, embellished with the insights and language of Cultural Studies. But it is questionable as to whether we really learn anything new from his analysis. La Chapelle reminds us, rightly, that Guthrie was a hillbilly singer long before he became the darling of the leftist folk music community of New York City. He argues that Woody was more than simply a spokesman for the Okies through his radio shows; he was also a vehicle for the assertion of Okie identity in a region that too often tried to deny their humanity. These judgements about Guthrie inform us that country music's political past is much more complex, and less generically conservative, than many modern commentators will allow.	. . .

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