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By Peter La Chapelle original article can be viewed here The one-eyed dude abides. Well actually, John Goodman, playing bible salesman Big Dan Teague, doesn’t so much abide, as he assails. Breaking a massive branch right off the tree for use as…

This article explores Jewish contributions to, and influence on, the country music and bluegrass genres, arguing that there have been four key phases of Jewish-country interaction and that in recent years country and bluegrass Jews have taken a…

A visual thread (via threadreaderapp) about the decades of support the country music industry & @Opry members gave to the nation's most famous segregationist, George C. Wallace. This research comes from a chapter of my book: I'd Fight the World:…

Culture Watch tags: documentaries, Race, cultural history, Ken Burns, country music Peter La Chapelle is professor of history at Nevada State College and the author of I’d Fight the World: A Political History of Old-Time, Hillbilly, and Country…

I am currently working on the sequel or companion book to I'd Fight the World: A Political History of Old-Time, Hillbilly and Country Music, which will take the narrative where it ends in that book (in 1974 or so) and bring it up to the present.…

One of the things I was particularly impressed with in Ken Burns' PBS Country Music doc was the interview of Hank Willia friend E. Jimmy Key, the guy with the whole "death eating a cracker" quip. Key was instrumental in the documentary in…

Harry Reid, former Senate majority leader: “I’d Fight the World provides unique insights into the iconic, American-made musical genres of old-time, hillbilly, and country and western. La Chapelle’s book is educational, interesting, and very easy…

Excerpted from I’d Fight the World: A Political History of Old-Time, Hillbilly, and Country Music, by Peter LaChapelle (footnotes omitted). Copyright © 2019 University of Chicago Press, 2019. Distributed by University of Chicago Press. Excerpted by…

Subscribe to E-news Most historians start off not with a rich vein of sources, but with some basic information and a hunch. That is where historical imagination makes its entrance. R.G. Collingwood’s turn of phrase “historical imagination” means not…

Woody Guthrie would have been 100 years old this month and there have been a number of academic conferences and celebrations across the country. There has also been a parade of press coverage about the hard travelling Woody, a singer-songwriter,…

Culture Watch At its annual awards show last week, the Country Music Association honored the 2007 inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Considering the association's track record of focusing on album sales and downplaying the genre's…

Reviews “Thoughtful, carefully researched, and well written. . . . Excellent book.”—Journal Of American History “On the road, with a beat.”—Kansas City Star “La Chapelle’s many observations are convincing and thought provoking. . . . Highly…

An anthology that questions the roles gender plays in creating and marketing a great American musical form Description From the smiling, sentimental mothers portrayed in 1930s radio barn dance posters, to the sexual shockwaves generated by Elvis…

"All That Glitters: Country Music, Taste, and the Politics of the Rhinestone ‘Nudie’ Suit." Dress, 28(1), pp. 3–12. Quite a while ago I published an article on country music's signature rhinestone Nudie suit.

Ever since the famous theory of Frederick Jackson Turner, migration has been a central theme in the popular imagination and scholarly study of the American West. Moving Stories showcases today's varied scholarly approaches. Contributors from the…