The paper discusses selected ballads by Woody Guthrie in relation to the tradition of the
American protest song and the hobo subculture. It begins with several biographical remarks
and a brief overview of the problem of the “wondering poor,” traveling tramps, hobos and
transients from the Civil War to the Great Depression era as mirrored in Woody Guthrie’s
ironic song repertoire to eventually point out some radical shifts in cultural representations
of hobos in America between 1865—1935
