The Christian Science Monitor appraises Woody Guthrie’s place in American culture.

“Guthrie derived his songs from the downtrodden lives of those he encountered on road journeys during the nation’s roughest periods, particularly the Great Depression. Songs like ‘Union Maid,’ ‘Pastures of Plenty,’ and ‘Tom Joad’ reflected a political conscience that was more culturally revolutionary than bound to any specific dogma.”

The story also quotes Will Kaufman, author of the University of Illinois Press book Woody Guthrie, American Radical.

“‘His politics really were mostly the politics of labor even more than antiwar,’ Mr. Kaufman says. During World War II, Guthrie railed against the enemy in songs like ‘All You Fascists Bound to Lose’ and sang for the troops while serving in the US Army and merchant marine.”