Speakers, Music & Art of the Lake Tahoe Chautauqua

The title of the Lake Tahoe Chautauqua 2004 is "The People, Yes!".  Taken from the title of a book by Carl Sandburg, this phrase sums up our goal of representing the lives of individuals who have expanded American democracy in the first half of the twentieth century.  It is hard for us to realize today, but a century ago American democracy was still at an early point in its evolution.  For example, US senators were still not popularly elected; women, African Americans, and others still lacked the vote; and the beginnings of a social safety net still lay decades in the future.

The Chautauqua characters for 2004 represent a broad spectrum of individuals from progressives to populists and from evangelists to balladeers.  What links this disparate group is that each character worked to expand our understanding of American democracy.  Characters include President Theodore Roosevelt, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, folk singer Woody Guthrie, poet Carl Sandburg, and politician Huey Long.

Our format involves the characters introducing themselves to the audience, sharing their life stories with anecdotes and quotations from their writing, and then answering audience questions.  Answers come from the character and are based on the scholar’s perspective and study.

Suggested Readings

Carl Sandburg—Suggested Readings
Carl Sandburg. Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Year.  One
Volume Edition. Galahad Books, 1999

Carl Sandburg. The People, Yes.  Harvest Books; reproduction Edition, 1990

Penelope Niven. Carl Sandburg: A Biography.  University of Illinois Press; Reissue
Edition, 1994


Woody Guthrie—Suggested Readings
Cray, Ed.  Ramblin’ Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie. Norton, 2004.

Woody Guthrie, Bound for Glory.  New American Library; 1995.

Woody Guthrie. Library of Congress Recordings. Audio CD, Rounder, 1992.


Huey Long—Suggested Readings
T. Harry Williams.  Huey Long.  Paperback Edition, Vintage, 1981
This biography of Long is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award

Robert Penn Warren.  All the King’s Men.  Harvest Books, 1996.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this classic book is generally regarded as the finest novel ever written on American politics.  It is based on the life of Huey Long. 

Huey P. Long.  Every Man a King: The Autobiography of Huey P. Long. DaCapo Press, 1996.


Aimee Semple McPherson—Suggested Readings
Robert Bahr.  Least of All Saints; The Story of Aimee Semple McPherson.  Paperback Edition, Backinprint.com; 2001

Blumhofer, Edith L.  Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister (Library of Religious Biography). Grand Rapids:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993.

Epstein, Daniel Mark.  Sister Aimee; The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson.  Reprint edition, Harvest Books, 1994


Theodore Roosevelt—Suggested Readings
Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex. Random House, 2001.

Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography. DaCapo Press; (April 1988)

Peter Collier, The Roosevelts: An American Saga.  Reprint edition, Touchstone Books, 1995.