Woody Guthrie: American Radical (University of Illinois Press), by Will Kaufman

Everyone who knows Woody Guthrie's music links him with the left, but in the aftermath of McCarthyism, it was more convenient to portray him as a secular saint of the common man rather than highlight his ties to the Communist Party. In his new biography, American culture professor (and Guthrie performer) Will Kaufman explores the singer's politics and finds evidence of his affiliations in plain sight. When the anthology of Guthrie's journalism, Woody Sez, was published in 1975, the editors neglected to mention that “Woody Sez” was the singer's column in the People's World, a Communist Party daily. Kaufman's exhaustive research will fascinate anyone interested in Guthrie and his role in the development of 20th-century American music and culture. The author of “This Land Is Your Land” proves to be a mixed bag, sometimes a misogynist and Stalinist, sometimes a Christian socialist, but almost always a tireless campaigner against greedy corporate interests. American Radical is a reminder that U.S. history was often pushed forward by the sort of people disdained by the likes of Sarah Palin.