The Story Behind America's Best-Known Protest Song

You know the song "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie. You probably sang it in elementary school. But the most that was ever used in schools was four of the six verses -usually fewer than that. When Guthrie wrote the song in 1940, it had six verses.  

Guthrie wrote "This Land Is Your Land" in a divey hotel room in New York City. He'd just landed in Manhattan after years of rambling across the country and meeting impoverished people affected by the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. Throughout his travels in the late '30s, Guthrie was haunted by Kate Smith's hit recording of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." Guthrie found Berlin's song to be jingoistic and out of touch with the reality facing many of his fellow citizens. So he set about writing a response.

Guthrie originally titled his rejoinder "God Blessed America"—emphasis on the past tense—but eventually changed his tone. Instead of doing a sarcastic parody, he wrote a song that pulls double-duty, celebrating America's natural splendor while criticizing the nation for falling short of its promise.

However, Guthrie self-censored the song, using only five verses in his first recording of the song in 1944, and only four in his 1951 version. Read the story of "This Land is Your Land," including the reasons Guthrie himself pulled back on the content, at Mental Floss.


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