Proud to Be an Okie

Proud to Be an Okie brings to life the influential country music scene that flourished in and around Los Angeles from the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s to the early 1970s. The first work to fully illuminate the political and cultural aspects of this intriguing story, the book takes us from Woody Guthrie's radical hillbilly show on Depression-era radio to Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee" in the late 1960s. It explores how these migrant musicians and their audiences came to gain a sense of identity through music and mass media, to embrace the New Deal, and to celebrate African American and Mexican American musical influences before turning toward a more conservative outlook. What emerges is a clear picture of how important Southern California was to country music and how country music helped shape the politics and culture of Southern California and of the nation.

Peter La Chapelle is Assistant Professor of History at Nevada State College in Henderson, Nevada.

List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction

PART I. BIG CITY WAYS
1. At the Crossroads of Whiteness: Antimigrant Activism, Eugenics, and Popular Culture
2. Refugees: Woody Guthrie, "Lost Angeles," and the Radicalization of Migrant Identity
3. Rhythm Kings and Riveter Queens: Race, Gender, and the Eclectic Populism of Wartime Western Swing

PART II. RHINESTONES AND RANCH HOMES
4. Ballads for the Crabgrass Frontier: Suburbanization, Whiteness, and the Unmaking of Okie Musical Ethnicity
5. Playing Second Fiddle No More? Country Music, Domesticity, and the Women’s Movement
6. Fightin’ Sides: “Okie from Muskogee,” Conservative Populism, and the Uses of Migrant Identity

Reprise: Dueling Populisms: The Okie Legacy in National and Regional Country Music
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index