White Christmas: The Story of a Song. Jody Rosen

of the folk revival was as much aesthetic as political: behind its cult of authenticity was disdain for the artifice and schmaltz of Tin Pan Alley pop. The movement’s torchbearer, Woody Guthrie, championed “people’s ballads” as the earthy alternative to the Hit Parade’s “sissy-voiced” crooners. When Guthrie wrote his most famous song, “This Land Is Your Land” (original title: “God Blessed America”), in response to Berlin’s anthem, he was replying not just to the tune’s jingoism but to the grandiose production values and bloated emotionalism of Kate Smith’s ubiquitous recording. Guthrie and his fellow acoustic-guitar-wielding folkies stood for grit, homespun verities, unflinching realism; at the bottom of his “This Land Is Your Land” lyric sheet, Guthrie noted: “All you can write is what you see.”