American History Told in Songs

Woody Guthrie’s life is as fascinating as his work is important for us to learn about the history of the United States of America. This essay about the history of America covers the time span of Woody Guthrie’s life and is mainly based on his songs, in which he tells stories of strong-minded people determined to pursue "life, liberty and happiness" even through hard times.

At the time Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born, the country was still rooted in its agrarian past, rapidly changing towards an industrial future. Oklahoma had been Indian Territory before it was admitted to the Union in 1906 and became a new state of the US. Woody spent his childhood there, during a period of great prosperity in America after World War I. In 1920, oil was discovered in the neighborhood, so his hometown was flooded with masses of people who went there looking for jobs. This migration ruined Woody’s father, causing him to send his children to a relative in Pampa. At that time Woody’s uncle taught him to play the guitar and Woody started to explore his various talents and interests.

It was the poverty in the Dust Bowl in the "Dirty Thirties" that started him on his journey across the US. In fact, this fraction of time comprises a period of several dust storms caused by a massive drought that had begun in 1930 and lasted until 1941. This ecological disaster set off a mass exodus from the Oklahoma panhandle region and also the surrounding Great Plains. Those who had lost their homes and livelihoods were lured westward by advertisements for work put out by agribusiness in western states such as California. The migrants came to be called Okies, Arkies and other derogatory names as they flooded the labor supply of the agricultural fields, driving down wages and increasing competition for jobs in areas that couldn’t afford it.

Just like almost everyone else, Woody left the town when the Great Dust Storm hit Pampa in 1935. As he traveled and met different people along his way, the number of his sons grew constantly. One trip took him to California. However, the Los Angeles police had set up road blocks, called the "Bum Blockade", to keep the migrants from overflowing the state, requiring a certain amount of money to enter. Woody wrote a song about this with the title "Do Re Mi".

Not only was the country afflicted by those devastating dust storms in the 1930s, the Great Depression that hit the United States in 1929 considerably worsened the situation. The Wall Street crash of 1929 is widely considered to be the foremost event which marked the start of this world-wide financial crisis. Woody Guthrie tried to come to terms with his horrible experiences during this time by composing songs like "So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You". In 1940, as he was on his way from Pampa to New York, Woody wrote what is unquestionably his most famous song, "This Land Is Your Land". Like some other songs of his, this one was written to combat popular songs of the time with their messages of negativity, which bothered Woody greatly. His intention was to convey hope through his compositions and prevent people from losing faith. The newly elected president Franklin Delano Roosevelt worked out the so-called New Deal to help the citizens and rescue the United States of America from the Great Depression. It was widely believed that the depression was caused by the inherent instability of the market and that government intervention was necessary to rationalize and stabilize economy.

Shortly before America entered World War II, Woody had started working on his autobiographical song "Bound For Glory" and he was capable of finishing it just before joining the Merchant Marines. Most Americans did not want to intervene in the war anyway and Woody was also of the opinion that it was a war between rich people and that the poor would not profit from it whether they won the war or not. However, as a passionate anti-fascist he wanted to do something to stop Hitler. He wrote many songs about the war, including "Round and Round Hitler’s Grave" but one of the best known songs was "Sinking of the Reuben James". Woody dedicated this piece of work to the crew of the American Destroyer USS Reuben James, which had been destroyed even before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and America entered the war. Despite his service in the Marines, the Army drafted Woody at the age of 32, just two months before Germany surrendered.