BURAK YEMENİCİ FROM ANTI-WAR TO PRO-WAR: PETE SEEGER AND WOODY GUTHRIE DURING WORLD WAR II FROM ANTI WOODY GUTHRIE DURING WORLD WAR II A Master’s Thesis - WAR TO PRO by BURAK YEMENİCİ - WAR: PETE SEEGER AND WAR: PETE Bilkent University Bilkent Department of History İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University Ankara December 2020 20 20 To my family FROM ANTI-WAR TO PRO-WAR: PETE SEEGER AND WOODY GUTHRIE DURING WORLD WAR II The Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences of İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University by BURAK YEMENİCİ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY İHSAN DOĞRAMACI BİLKENT UNIVERSITY ANKARA December 2020 ABSTRACT FROM ANTI-WAR TO PRO-WAR: PETE SEEGER AND WOODY GUTHRIE DURING WORLD WAR II Yemenici, Burak M.A., Department of History Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Owen Miller December 2020 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 iii standpoint, and how this change was in near-perfect alignment with that of the Communist Party. Keywords: American Folk Music, Communism, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, World War II. iv ÖZET SAVAŞ KARŞITLIĞINDAN SAVAŞ TARAFTARLIĞINA: İKİNCİ DÜNYA SAVAŞI’NDA PETE SEEGER VE WOODY GUTHRIE Yemenici, Burak Yüksek Lisans, Tarih Bölümü Tez Danışmanı: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Owen Miller Aralık 2020 Amerikan halk müziğinin iki efsane ismi olan Pete Seeger ve Woody Guthrie, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri tarihinin en çalkantılı dönemlerinden birinde yaşamıştır. Büyüdükleri çevreler, içinde bulundukları şartlar ve karşılaştıkları insanlar, bu iki ismi 1930’lu yıllarda komünizmle tanıştırmıştır. İkili, bağımsız bir duruşa sahip olmayı önemsedikleri için bilinçli bir şekilde Komünist Parti’ye resmi olarak üye olmamış, ancak yıllar boyu komünist ideolojinin birer “yoldaşı” olarak aynı yolda yürümüşlerdir. Her ne kadar hem Seeger, hem de Guthrie, herhangi bir organizasyona veya kuruluşa bağlı olmaksızın, sadece kendilerinin inandığı değerler ve davalar uğruna şarkılar yazıp söylediklerini ifade etmişlerse de, ikilinin 1930’lu yılların sonlarından 1940’lı yılların başlarına dek sahip oldukları politik görüşler ve özellikle de Sovyetler Birliği’nin Haziran 1941’de Alman işgaline uğramasından sonra bu görüşlerinde yaşanan önemli değişiklikler analiz edildiğinde, bu iki ismin politik duruşlarının Komünist Parti’nin o dönemki politikalarıyla büyük benzerlik içinde olduğu görülmektedir. Bu çalışma, Pete Seeger ve Woody Guthrie’nin katı bir savaş karşıtı duruşa ve bunu savunan pek çok şarkıya sahipken bu görüşlerinin nasıl v büyük bir hızla değiştiğini, aylar içinde nasıl ve neden Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin İkinci Dünya Savaşı’na girmesinin coşkulu birer destekçisi haline geldiklerini, bunu o dönemde yazdıkları yeni savaş şarkılarıyla nasıl ifade ettiklerini, ve politik duruşlarındaki bu ani değişimin Komünist Parti’nin politikalarıyla ne denli büyük bir uyum içinde olduğunu incelemektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Amerikan Halk Müziği, İkinci Dünya Savaşı, Komünizm, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank the following people, without whose endless support and motivation, I would not probably have been able to succeed in this pleasant yet challenging journey: My advisor, Asst. Prof. Dr. Owen Miller, for believing in me from the very first day until the end, showing me the right way when I got lost and keeping me on track with his thorough feedbacks, detailed comments and endless enthusiasm throughout the study. I will miss those weekly Saturday conversations. Asst. Prof. Dr. Kenneth Weisbrode, my acting advisor at times, for his invaluable guidance and encouragement along with all those great classes in which I learnt so much from him. Asst. Prof. Dr. Cem Kılıçarslan, the person whom I have seen as a role model since the day I met him because of his fields of interest, kind personality and friendliness, for teaching me so much and being my mentor for all these years. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bilge Mutluay Çetintaş, the person who introduced me to American folk music for the first time, for providing me with her broad knowledge on this field via her classes and inspiring me to learn more on this very subject. Prof. Dr. Tanfer Emin Tunç, the person who made me decide for sure that I wanted to study History when she gave me a seashell inside of which was written “100 AKE Dollars” after an exam, for making me love this field and for her caring guidance. vii My professors at Bilkent University, Department of History, and Hacettepe University, Department of American Culture and Literature, for enriching my knowledge on the field of American Studies and History and making me the person who I am now. My peers at Bilkent University, Dilara Erçelik, Hamdi Karakal, Marium Somroo, Mert Deniz, Ogün Can Çetiner, Widy Nowantyo Susanto and Yağmur Fakıoğlu, for sharing with me all those joyous classes as well as anxieties of assignment deadlines and telling me “I have not started writing, either” whenever I needed to hear that. My colleagues and lovely friends, Cemre Çiçek Tümer, Duygu Bester Başer Özcan, Gülcay Karakoyun, Gülşah Çınar Yastıbaş, Kardelen Kaya, Merve Aydın and Yasemen Özfındık Kotik for making this long period more bearable for me and keeping me motivated this entire time. Dr. Tarık Tansu Yiğit, whom I have shared all my concerns with and directed all my questions to in this process, for being not only a dear friend but also a mentor to me. Eda Marangoz, my best friend and dearest companion, for always being there and believing in me when I was struggling with the challenges of both academic and professional life, relieving me with her kind patience, and making things so much easier for me with her never-ending support no matter what. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for always expressing their endless support and belief in me and helping me in any way I needed, or many times more than I actually needed. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii ÖZET ......................................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGMENT ......................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... ix CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1 1.1. Structure and Objectives ......................................................................... 1 1.2. Historiography and Sources .................................................................. 10 1.3. Background ........................................................................................... 22 CHAPTER II: BEFORE THE WAR CAME ........................................................... 33 2.1. Dirty Thirties: The Rise of Popular Front ............................................. 35 2.2. “A Rusty-Voiced Homer”: Woody Guthrie .......................................... 47 2.3. A Harvard-Dropout Yankee: Pete Seeger ............................................. 55 2.4. Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: The Fall of Popular Front ........................... 61 CHAPTER III: “THE YANKS ARE NOT COMING” ........................................... 69 3.1. The Renaissance of American Folk Song ............................................. 71 3.2. The Peace Army .................................................................................... 79 3.3. The Flip-Flop ........................................................................................ 92 CHAPTER IV: THE NEW SITUATION ................................................................ 97 4.1. “Which Side Are You On?” .................................................................. 99 4.2. “Dear Mr. President” .......................................................................... 106 4.3. From Singers to Soldiers ..................................................................... 122 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .............................................................................. 131 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 137 ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Songs make history. History makes songs. Irving Berlin1 1.1 Structure and Objectives It cannot be denied that music is and has always been a conveyor