Peter La Chapelle

Peter La Chapelle is Professor of History at Nevada State College in the Las Vegas area where he periodically teaches an upper-division history topics course titled "Explorations in O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Region, Politics, and Music Culture." La Chapelle's recent book, I'd Fight the World: A Political History of Old-Time, Hillbilly, and Country Music (University of Chicago Press) digs deep into to the real history figures such as Pappy O'Daniel, George Wallace, and Big Jim Folsom.
What ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ Gets Right (and Wrong) About America
Culture/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Film/SAVE/ IGNORE: popular

What ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ Gets Right (and Wrong) About America

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 / 15 September 2020

Telling the tale of the cyclops through the lens of high and low culture, in O'Brother, Where Art Thou? the Coens hammer home a fatalistic criticism about the ways that commerce, violence, and cosmetic Christianity prevail in American society .

By the Book: I’d Fight the World: A Political History of Old-Time, Hillbilly, and Country Music
Books/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/History/Media/Music/Politics

By the Book: I’d Fight the World: A Political History of Old-Time, Hillbilly, and Country Music

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 / 13 September 2019

I'd Fight the World explores the connection between country music and electoral politics, giving us a glimpse into how politicians used celebrity long before the rise of the "movie-actor president" and the "Twitter president".