Not to turn this into a discussion about Communism, but I believe it is pretty clear that the presentation and dissemenation of folk music in this country would be completely different without the strong communist and communist culture community presence in the 1930s and 1940s. After all, Alan Lomax was not a card carrying member, but he was a sympathizer (something his father even argued with him about) and he presented radical songwriters as authentic examples of folk culture. It's hard for me to think about our representation of American folk music without giving a little knod to the United States Communist Party