From anti-war to pro-war: Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie during World War II
Author(s)
Advisor
Date
2020-12Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
80
views
views
101
downloads
downloads
Abstract
Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, two legendary figures of American folk music,
lived through some of the most tumultuous periods of the history of the United
States. The circumstances they grew up in and the people they encountered led them
to meet communism in the 1930s. Being two independent souls, they were not
registered members of the Communist Party but walked on the same path for years
as “fellow travelers.” Both men claimed that they wrote and sang songs for the
causes they believed in without being subjects of a larger organization. However, an
analysis on their political views from the late 1930s to the early 1940s, particularly
their change of political stance in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet
Union in June 1941, indicates that their political mindset was in close resemblance
with the stance of the Communist Party. This thesis narrates the story of how Pete
Seeger and Woody Guthrie became firm supporters of the United States’ entrance
into World War II with all their war songs in a matter of months even though they
previously displayed a strict anti-war stance with many songs manifesting their
standpoint, and how this change was in near-perfect alignment with that of the
Communist Party.