Appalachian Mountain Religion

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Appalachian Mountain Religion

Author : Deborah Vansau McCauley
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 9780252064142
Total Pages : 584 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (641 download)

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Book Synopsis Appalachian Mountain Religion by : Deborah Vansau McCauley

Download or read book Appalachian Mountain Religion written by Deborah Vansau McCauley and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A monumental achievement. . . . Certainly the best thing written on Appalachian Religion and one of the best works on the region itself. Deborah McCauley has made a winning argument that Appalachian religion is a true and authentic counter-stream to modern mainstream Protestant religion." -- Loyal Jones, founding director of the Appalachian Center at Berea College Appalachian Mountain Religion is much more than a narrowly focused look at the religion of a region. Within this largest regional and widely diverse religious tradition can be found the strings that tie it to all of American religious history. The fierce drama between American Protestantism and Appalachian mountain religion has been played out for nearly two hundred years; the struggle between piety and reason, between the heart and the head, has echoes reaching back even further--from Continental Pietism and the Scots-Irish of western Scotland and Ulster to Colonial Baptist revival culture and plain-folk camp-meeting religion. Deborah Vansau McCauley places Appalachian mountain religion squarely at the center of American religious history, depicting the interaction and dramatic conflicts between it and the denominations that comprise the Protestant "mainstream." She clarifies the tradition histories and symbol systems of the area's principally oral religious culture, its worship practices and beliefs, further illuminating the clash between mountain religion and the "dominant religious culture" of the United States. This clash has helped to shape the course of American religious history. The explorations in Appalachian Mountain Religion range from Puritan theology to liberation theology, from Calvinism to the Holiness-Pentecostal movements. Within that wide realm and in the ongoing contention over religious values, the many strains of American religious history can be heard.

Encyclopedia of Religion in the South

Author : Samuel S. Hill
Publisher : Mercer University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780865547582
Total Pages : 898 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (475 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Religion in the South by : Samuel S. Hill

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Religion in the South written by Samuel S. Hill and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 898 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The publication of the Encyclopedia of Religion in the South in 1984 signaled the rise in the scholarly interest in the study of Religion in the South. Religion has always been part of the cultural heritage of that region, but scholarly investigation had been sporadic. Since the original publication of the ERS, however, the South has changed significantly in that Christianity is no longer the primary religion observed. Other religions like Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism have begun to have very important voices in Southern life. This one-volume reference, the only one of its kind, takes this expansion into consideration by updating older relevant articles and by adding new ones. After more than 20 years, the only reference book in the field of the Religion in the South has been totally revised and updated. Each article has been updated and bibliography has been expanded. The ERS has also been expanded to include more than sixty new articles on Religion in the South. New articles have been added on such topics as Elvis Presley, Appalachian Music, Buddhism, Bill Clinton, Jerry Falwell, Fannie Lou Hamer, Zora Neale Hurston, Stonewall Jackson, Popular Religion, Pat Robertson, the PTL, Sports and Religion in the South, theme parks, and much more. This is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the South, religion, or cultural history.

More Than Precious Memories

Author : Michael P. Graves
Publisher : Mercer University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780865549555
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (495 download)

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Book Synopsis More Than Precious Memories by : Michael P. Graves

Download or read book More Than Precious Memories written by Michael P. Graves and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than Precious Memories is the first book of its kind--a collection of essays offering scholarly analysis and interpretation of Southern Gospel Music. Believing Southern Gospel Music to be a significant cultural and religious phenomenon worthy of the best efforts of scholarship, Grayes and Fillingim have assembled a diverse group of scholars who apply a variety of methods and theories to the task of understanding Southern Gospel Music and its cultural context. These scholars and approaches include the following. - Scott Tucker, looks at the theme of "heaven" in six of the Gaither Homecoming songbooks - David Fillingim looks at how Southern Gospel Music answers the question of theodicy from the perspective of the rural white, working class - Robert M. McManus explores selected song lyrics to show how Southern - Gospel Music helps construct the identity of the community compared to Contemporary Christian Music - Darlene R. Graves identifies key sustaining personality strengths of women that tend to preserve consistency between their public performance and personal spiritual walk - Elizabeth F. Desnoyers Colas and Stephanie Howard (Asabi) explore Southern Gospel and Black Gospel music through the influence of Thomas A. Dorsey - Michael Graves examines how the culture of Southern Gospel Music deals with its inevitable prodigal sons - Raymond D.S. Anderson analyzes the Gaither Homecoming videos as examples of the postmodern turn in American popular Christian culture - John D. Keeler presents the first audience study of Southern Gospel Music employing a "Uses and Gratifications" research framework - Paul A. Creasman examines the ways Southern Gospel Musicas a culture memorializes its dead by use of the Internet - Naaman Wood reviews significant scholarly approaches to the study of popular music.

Life and Religion in Southern Appalachia

Author : Willis Duke Weatherford
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 186 pages
Book Rating : 4.X/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Life and Religion in Southern Appalachia by : Willis Duke Weatherford

Download or read book Life and Religion in Southern Appalachia written by Willis Duke Weatherford and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "During the summers of 1958 and 1959, a survey was carried on in the Southern Appalachian Mountains Region [the hill country of Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia] to gather data on current economic, cultural, and social conditions ... This book contains selected data from the study, with interpretive comments and human interest highlights."--Preface, p. [ix].

Christianity in Appalachia

Author : Bill J. Leonard
Publisher : Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN 13 : 9781572330405
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Christianity in Appalachia by : Bill J. Leonard

Download or read book Christianity in Appalachia written by Bill J. Leonard and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion has long been a source of identity for many Southerners, and the Appalachian areas in particular have proven to be a virtual fortress protecting faith and culture. Yet, in a region popularly thought to be religiously homogeneous, congregations reflect a wide range of doctrinal differences over such issues as conversion, ministerial leadership, and the authority on which a church bases its core beliefs. Profiling the prominent Christian traditions in southern Appalachia, this book brings together contributions by twenty scholars who have long studied the religious practices found in the region's cities, small towns, and rural communities. These authors provide insights into not only the independent mountain churches that are strongly linked to local customs but also the mainline and other religious bodies that have a significant presence in Appalachia but are not strictly associated with it. The essays explore the nature of ministry within these various churches, show the impact of broader culture on religion in the region, and consider the question of whether previously isolated, tradition-based churches can retain their distinctiveness in a changing world. One group of chapters focuses on elements of mountain religion as seen in the beliefs and practices of mountain Holiness folk, serpent handlers, and various Baptist traditions. Later chapters review the history and activities of other denominations, including Southern Baptist, Presbyterian, Wesleyan/Holiness, Church of God, and Roman Catholic. Also considered are the economic history of the region, popular religiosity, and the role of church-affiliated colleges. Taken together, these essays offer a richly nuanced understanding of Christianity in Appalachia. The Editor: Bill J. Leonard is dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University. His other books include Out of One, Many: American Religion and American Pluralism and God's Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Contributors: Monica Kelly Appleby, Donald N. Bowdle, Mary Lee Daugherty, Melvin E. Dieter, Howard Dorgan, Anthony Dunnavant, Gary Farley, Samuel S. Hill, Loyal Jones, Helen Lewis, Charles H. Lippy, Bill J. Leonard, Deborah Vansau McCauley, Lou F. McNeil, Marcia Clark Myers, Bennett Poage, Ira Read, James Sessions, Barbara Ellen Smith, H. Davis Yeuell.

Religion and Resistance in Appalachia

Author : Joseph D. Witt
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813168147
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion and Resistance in Appalachia by : Joseph D. Witt

Download or read book Religion and Resistance in Appalachia written by Joseph D. Witt and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2016-12-09 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last fifty years, the Appalachian Mountains have suffered permanent and profound change due to the expansion of surface coal mining. The irrevocable devastation caused by this practice has forced local citizens to redefine their identities, their connections to global economic forces, their pasts, and their futures. Religion is a key factor in the fierce debate over mountaintop removal; some argue that it violates a divine mandate to protect the earth, while others contend that coal mining is a God-given gift to ensure human prosperity and comfort. In Religion and Resistance in Appalachia: Faith and the Fight against Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining, Joseph D. Witt examines how religious and environmental ethics foster resistance to mountaintop removal coal mining. Drawing on extensive interviews with activists, teachers, preachers, and community leaders, Witt's research offers a fresh analysis of an important and dynamic topic. His study reflects a diversity of denominational perspectives, exploring Catholic and mainline Protestant views of social and environmental justice, evangelical Christian readings of biblical ethics, and Native and nontraditional spiritual traditions. By placing Appalachian resistance to mountaintop removal in a comparative international context, Witt's work also provides new outlooks on the future of the region and its inhabitants. His timely study enhances, challenges, and advances conversations not only about the region, but also about the relationship between religion and environmental activism.

The Worship Mall

Author : Bryan D. Spinks
Publisher : Church Publishing, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 0898696771
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (986 download)

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Book Synopsis The Worship Mall by : Bryan D. Spinks

Download or read book The Worship Mall written by Bryan D. Spinks and published by Church Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion today is in competition with the leisure and entertainment industries. Gen Y, the postmodern generation, is open to spirituality; but most of todays young adults have not been born into faith communities where they feel any lasting allegiance. Studies suggest that for the young, belief in God is an optional matter, a virtual consumer choice. As a result, different trends in worship and worship styles are offered by different churches to suit lifestyles, attitudes, and personal taste.

The Economy of Religion in American Literature

Author : Andrew Ball
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350231681
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis The Economy of Religion in American Literature by : Andrew Ball

Download or read book The Economy of Religion in American Literature written by Andrew Ball and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-04-07 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining how economic change influences religion, and the way literature mediates that influence, this book provides a thorough reassessment of modern American culture. Focusing on the period 1840-1940, the author shows how the development of capitalism reshaped American Protestantism and addresses the necessary role of literature in that process. Arguing that the “spirit of capitalism” was not fostered by traditional Puritanism, Ball explores the ways that Christianity was transformed by the market and industrial revolutions. This book refutes the long-held secularization thesis by showing that modernity was a time when new forms of the sacred proliferated, and that this religious flourishing was essential to the production of American culture. Ball draws from the work of Émile Durkheim and cultural sociology to interpret modern social upheavals like religious awakenings, revivalism, and the labor movement. Examining work from writers like Rebecca Harding Davis, Jack London, and Countee Cullen, he shows how concepts of salvation fundamentally intersect with matters of race, gender, and class, and proposes a theory that explains the enchantment of modern American society.

A Pentecostal Hermeneutic for the Twenty First Century

Author : Kenneth Archer
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 9780567083678
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (836 download)

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Book Synopsis A Pentecostal Hermeneutic for the Twenty First Century by : Kenneth Archer

Download or read book A Pentecostal Hermeneutic for the Twenty First Century written by Kenneth Archer and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2004-12-30 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this book is to present a critically informed contemporary Pentecostal hermeneutic rooted in Pentecostal identity, in its stories, beliefs and practices. As Pentecostals began entering academic communities of higher learning, their interpretive methods became both mainstream and modernistic as they adapted the historical critical methods, or the so-called scientific hermeneutic. The proposed hermeneutic contained in this book desires to move beyond the impasse created by Modernity, instead pushing Pentecostals into the contemporary context by critically re-appropriating early Pentecostal ethos and interpretive practices for a contemporary Pentecostal community. The Pentecostal hermeneutic is a three-way interaction for theological meaning between the Holy Spirit, the Pentecostal community and sacred Scripture.

High Mountains Rising

Author : Richard A. Straw
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252092600
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis High Mountains Rising by : Richard A. Straw

Download or read book High Mountains Rising written by Richard A. Straw and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection is the first comprehensive, cohesive volume to unite Appalachian history with its culture. Richard A. Straw and H. Tyler Blethen's High Mountains Rising provides a clear, systematic, and engaging overview of the Appalachian timeline, its people, and the most significant aspects of life in the region. The first half of the fourteen essays deal with historical issues including Native Americans, pioneer settlement, slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, industrialization, the Great Depression, migration, and finally, modernization. The remaining essays take a more cultural focus, addressing stereotypes, music, folklife, language, literature, and religion. Bringing together many of the most prestigious scholars in Appalachian studies, this volume has been designed for general and classroom use, and includes suggestions for further reading.

A History of Appalachia

Author : Richard B. Drake
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813137934
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis A History of Appalachia by : Richard B. Drake

Download or read book A History of Appalachia written by Richard B. Drake and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2003-09-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Drake has skillfully woven together the various strands of the Appalachian experience into a sweeping whole. Touching upon folk traditions, health care, the environment, higher education, the role of blacks and women, and much more, Drake offers a compelling social history of a unique American region. The Appalachian region, extending from Alabama in the South up to the Allegheny highlands of Pennsylvania, has historically been characterized by its largely rural populations, rich natural resources that have fueled industry in other parts of the country, and the strong and wild, undeveloped land. The rugged geography of the region allowed Native American societies, especially the Cherokee, to flourish. Early white settlers tended to favor a self-sufficient approach to farming, contrary to the land grabbing and plantation building going on elsewhere in the South. The growth of a market economy and competition from other agricultural areas of the country sparked an economic decline of the region's rural population at least as early as 1830. The Civil War and the sometimes hostile legislation of Reconstruction made life even more difficult for rural Appalachians. Recent history of the region is marked by the corporate exploitation of resources. Regional oil, gas, and coal had attracted some industry even before the Civil War, but the postwar years saw an immense expansion of American industry, nearly all of which relied heavily on Appalachian fossil fuels, particularly coal. What was initially a boon to the region eventually brought financial disaster to many mountain people as unsafe working conditions and strip mining ravaged the land and its inhabitants. A History of Appalachia also examines pockets of urbanization in Appalachia. Chemical, textile, and other industries have encouraged the development of urban areas. At the same time, radio, television, and the internet provide residents direct links to cultures from all over the world. The author looks at the process of urbanization as it belies commonly held notions about the region's rural character.

Work and Faith in the Kentucky Coal Fields

Author : Richard J. Callahan
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 025300070X
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

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Book Synopsis Work and Faith in the Kentucky Coal Fields by : Richard J. Callahan

Download or read book Work and Faith in the Kentucky Coal Fields written by Richard J. Callahan and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2008-11-20 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring themes of work and labor in everyday life, Richard J. Callahan, Jr., offers a history of how coal miners and their families lived their religion in eastern Kentucky's coal fields during the early 20th century. Callahan follows coal miners and their families from subsistence farming to industrial coal mining as they draw upon religious idioms to negotiate changing patterns of life and work. He traces innovation and continuity in religious expression that emerged from the specific experiences of coal mining, including the spaces and social structures of coal towns, the working bodies of miners, the anxieties of their families, and the struggle toward organized labor. Building on oral histories, folklore, folksongs, and vernacular forms of spirituality, this rich and engaging narrative recovers a social history of ordinary working people through religion.

A Mennonite Boy's Odyssey

Author : Bernard (Bernie) D. Bowman
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1532602715
Total Pages : 108 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (326 download)

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Book Synopsis A Mennonite Boy's Odyssey by : Bernard (Bernie) D. Bowman

Download or read book A Mennonite Boy's Odyssey written by Bernard (Bernie) D. Bowman and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Mennonite Boy's Odyssey is a story of courage and discovery. Some individuals are fully content to embrace answers provided by their own elders to life's great questions. For others, their elders' way proves untenable. They must forge their own path, awakening through assimilation from alternate sources. A Mennonite Boy's Odyssey traces one such awakening, a life journey of spiritual development from growing up Mennonite in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the 1950s and 1960s, through decades of reading, thought, and enquiry. The book balances life experience with intellectual and spiritual transformation. This book is an accounting of a Hero's Journey, in the parlance of Joseph Campbell.

Religion and Public Life in the South

Author : Charles Reagan Wilson
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
ISBN 13 : 9780759106352
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (63 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion and Public Life in the South by : Charles Reagan Wilson

Download or read book Religion and Public Life in the South written by Charles Reagan Wilson and published by Rowman Altamira. This book was released on 2005 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In July 2002 chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court had a two-ton monument of the Ten Commandments placed into the rotunda of the Montgomery state judicial building. But this action is only a recent case in the long history of religiously inspired public movements in the American South. From the Civil War to the Scopes Trial to the Moral Majority, white Southern evangelicals have taken ideas they see as drawn from the Christian Scriptures and tried to make them into public law. But blacks, women, subregions, and other religious groups too vie for power within and outside this Southern Religious Establishment. Religion and Public Life in the South gives voice to both the establishment and its dissenters and shows why more than any other region of the country, religion drives public debate in the South.

Southern Heritage on Display

Author : Celeste Ray
Publisher : University of Alabama Press
ISBN 13 : 0817312277
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (173 download)

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Book Synopsis Southern Heritage on Display by : Celeste Ray

Download or read book Southern Heritage on Display written by Celeste Ray and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2003-01-22 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How ritualized public ceremonies affirm or challenge cultural identities associated with the American South W. J. Cash's 1941 observation that “there are many Souths and many cultural traditions among them” is certainly validated by this book. Although the Civil War and its “lost cause” tradition continues to serve as a cultural root paradigm in celebrations, both uniting and dividing loyalties, southerners also embrace a panoply of public rituals—parades, cook-offs, kinship homecomings, church assemblies, music spectacles, and material culture exhibitions—that affirm other identities. From the Appalachian uplands to the Mississippi Delta, from Kentucky bluegrass to Carolina piedmont, southerners celebrate in festivals that showcase their diverse cultural backgrounds and their mythic beliefs about themselves. The ten essays of this cohesive, interdisciplinary collection present event-centered research from various fields of study—anthropology, geography, history, and literature—to establish a rich, complex picture of the stereotypically “Solid South.” Topics include the Mardi Gras Indian song cycle as a means of expressing African-American identity in New Orleans; powwow performances and Native American traditions in southeast North Carolina; religious healings in southern Appalachian communities; Mexican Independence Day festivals in central Florida; and, in eastern Tennessee, bonding ceremonies of melungeons who share Indian, Scots Irish, Mediterranean, and African ancestry. Seen together, these public heritage displays reveal a rich “creole” of cultures that have always been a part of southern life and that continue to affirm a flourishing regionalism. This book will be valuable to students and scholars of cultural anthropology, American studies, and southern history; academic and public libraries; and general readers interested in the American South. It contributes a vibrant, colorful layer of understanding to the continuously emerging picture of complexity in this region historically depicted by simple stereotypes.

Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands

Author : Loyal Jones
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 9780252067594
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (675 download)

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Book Synopsis Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands by : Loyal Jones

Download or read book Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands written by Loyal Jones and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jones attacks what he sees as the historical dismissal of mountain religious life, as supported by nineteenth- and twentieth-century missionary movements bent on changing mountain life through better religion. He explores the creation and perpetuation of negative stereotypes as mainline Christians contended that "Upland Christians" had to be saved from themselves.

They Say in Harlan County

Author : Alessandro Portelli
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199780005
Total Pages : 456 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis They Say in Harlan County by : Alessandro Portelli

Download or read book They Say in Harlan County written by Alessandro Portelli and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-04 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Made famous in the 1976 documentary Harlan County USA, this pocket of Appalachian coal country has been home to generations of miners--and to some of the most bitter labor battles of the 20th century. It has also produced a rich tradition of protest songs and a wealth of fascinating culture and custom that has remained largely undiscovered by outsiders, until now. They Say in Harlan County is not a book about coal miners so much as a dialogue in which more than 150 Harlan County women and men tell the story of their region, from pioneer times through the dramatic strikes of the 1930s and '70s, up to the present. Alessandro Portelli draws on 25 years of original interviews to take readers into the mines and inside the lives of those who work, suffer, and often die in them--from black lung, falling rock, suffocation, or simply from work that can be literally backbreaking. The book is structured as a vivid montage of all these voices--stoic, outraged, grief-stricken, defiant--skillfully interwoven with documents from archives, newspapers, literary works, and the author's own participating and critical voice. Portelli uncovers the whole history and memory of the United States in this one symbolic place, through settlement, civil war, slavery, industrialization, immigration, labor conflict, technological change, migration, strip mining, environmental and social crises, and resistance. And as hot-button issues like mountain-top removal and the use of "clean coal" continue to hit the news, the history of Harlan County--especially as seen through the eyes of those who lived it--is becoming increasingly important. With rare emotional immediacy, gripping narratives, and unforgettable characters, They Say in Harlan County tells the real story of a culture, the resilience of its people, and the human costs of coal mining.