From the publisher’s description:
In Creating Country Music, Richard Peterson traces the development of country music and its institutionalization from Fiddlin’ John Carson’s pioneering recordings in Atlanta in 1923 to the posthumous success of Hank Williams. Peterson captures the free-wheeling entrepreneurial spirit of the era, detailing the activities of the key promoters who sculpted the emerging country music scene. More than just a history of the music and its performers, this book is the first to explore what it means to be authentic within popular culture.
Peterson, Richard A. (NHC Fellow, 1989–90), ed. Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997. ISBN 9780226662848.