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The Achievement of Wendell Berry: The Hard History of Love

Fritz Oehlschlaeger

Arguably one of the most important American writers working today, Wendell Berry, is the author of more than fifty books, including novels and collections of poems, short stories, and essays. A ... More

Arguably one of the most important American writers working today, Wendell Berry, is the author of more than fifty books, including novels and collections of poems, short stories, and essays. A prominent spokesman for agrarian values, Berry frequently defends such practices and ideas as sustainable agriculture, healthy rural communities, connection to place, the pleasures of work, and the interconnectedness of life. This book provides a sweeping engagement with Berry's entire corpus. It introduces the reader to Berry's general philosophy and aesthetic through careful consideration of his essays. It also pays particular attention to Berry as an agrarian, citizen, and patriot, and examines the influence of Christianity on Berry's writings. Much of the book is devoted to lively close readings of Berry's short stories, novels, and poetry.Less

Alben Barkley: A Life in Politics

James K. Libbey

Born in humble, rural surroundings in the Jackson Purchase, Barkley grew into a sturdy youth who received an education through parental sacrifices. He graduated from Marvin College as an ... More

Born in humble, rural surroundings in the Jackson Purchase, Barkley grew into a sturdy youth who received an education through parental sacrifices. He graduated from Marvin College as an award-winning speaker and soon moved with his parents to Paducah, where he read law and became an attorney. Barkley entered politics winning elections as county attorney and then county judge: he gained victory through his farmer constituents. In 1913 he moved from courthouse to Congress as a progressive who championed President Wilson’s New Freedom program. During World War I, he favored freedom of the seas to promote agricultural exports and gained national attention by advocating prohibition. In wartime he visited US soldiers on the front lines and in peacetime became a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which enhanced his understanding of international relations. His only electoral loss occurred when he campaigned for governor, but his Kentucky canvass enabled him to win a US Senate seat in 1926. Furious over Republican administrations for their support of high tariffs that hurt agricultural exports and their inability to assist impoverished Americans during the Great Depression, Barkley became a strong supporter and national spokesman for the New Deal. World War II found Senate majority leader Barkley playing a key role in wartime legislation, but he lost favor with President Roosevelt by opposing the president’s expensive revenue bill of 1944. Meanwhile, the senator had maintained close and supportive relations with Truman and joined him as his vice presidential candidate on the 1948 presidential ticket. Barkley became the one and only Veep who turned the vice presidency into an important office. The Paducah politician failed to get his party’s nomination for president in 1952, so he temporarily retired, appearing on his own national television show, and preparing (with help) his autobiography. In 1954 he won election and returned to the US Senate as a junior member.Less

Appalachian Travels: The Diary of Olive Dame Campbell

Olive Dame Campbell

Elizabeth M. Williams (ed.)

Olive Dame Campbell is best known as a ballad collector, but she was also a social reformer in Appalachia. Her diary is a the record of a trip that she and her husband, John C. Campbell, made in the ... More

Olive Dame Campbell is best known as a ballad collector, but she was also a social reformer in Appalachia. Her diary is a the record of a trip that she and her husband, John C. Campbell, made in the early part of the 20th century to gather data for the Russell Sage Foundation about the true social, religious, and economic conditions in the Southern Highlands. Visiting eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina, they interviewed missionaries, teachers, and settlement school workers, going to out-of-the-way villages and towns on roads that were often nothing more than creek beds. After John Campbell's death in 1919, she continued his work, finishing his book, The Southern Highlander and His Homeland, the first comprehensive history of Appalachia. All the while, she maintained her interest in folk songs, acquired on their fact-finding trip. She studied the educational principles of Scandinavian folk schools and established the John C. Campbell Folk School near Brasstown, North Carolina, to encourage the local population to continue the tradition of creating native crafts and was instrumental in the establishment of the Southern Mountain Handicraft Guild. Olive Dame Campbell's diary of their investigative trip to gather information is an entertaining and enlightening account of the places the Campbells visited and the people they met, revealing captivating details of everyday life in Appalachia at the turn of the century.Less

The Arthurdale Community School: Education and Reform in Depression Era Appalachia

Sam F. Jr. Stack

The book examines the Arthurdale School, which was created during the Great Depression and dedicated to the purpose of building community and preparing students for participation in democratic ... More

The book examines the Arthurdale School, which was created during the Great Depression and dedicated to the purpose of building community and preparing students for participation in democratic society. In an effort to relieve the suffering resulting from the Depression, Congress passed the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933, and, as part of the act, $25 million was given to President Roosevelt and Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to build subsistence homestead communities. Subsistence homesteads were designed to give people enough land to farm and provide for their food for their own use. These New Deal reformers also believed that the subsistence homestead could build a sense of community, alleviating the alienation resulting from economic displacement. Seeking sites for the social experiment to begin, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the coal camps in north central West Virginia. Feeling sympathy for the plight of these Appalachian people, and aware of the political unrest in the area, she returned to Washington and convinced her husband that these devastated coal families needed to be chosen to develop the first subsistence homestead community, Arthurdale. She also believed that the children of the displaced miners needed a special kind of education, one grounded in the philosophy of progressive education. Education was to serve as the center of community life, a process that brought people together in a sense of ownership and a restored sense of human dignity.Less

Before the Quagmire: American Intervention in Laos, 1954-1961

William Rust

This book discusses the formulation and execution of U.S. foreign policy in Laos from 1954, when the Geneva Accords ended the First Indochina War, until January 1961, when John F. Kennedy became ... More

This book discusses the formulation and execution of U.S. foreign policy in Laos from 1954, when the Geneva Accords ended the First Indochina War, until January 1961, when John F. Kennedy became president. A key initial misstep on the U.S. road to war in Southeast Asia, the American experience in Laos during the Eisenhower administration is a case study in transforming a small foreign policy problem into a large one. Based on documents from the U.S. National Archives, the Eisenhower Library, and other public and private collections of primary sources, the book shows how the administration's efforts to thwart communism in Laos were undermined by ignorance of the country's history and culture; by contradictory policies proposed, and actions pursued, by the State Department, Pentagon, and CIA; and by a lack of unity among the Western allies. A key failure of U.S. policymaking was a lack of awareness that covert intervention in the kingdom's political life had a destabilizing impact on the fragile non-communist base the United States sought to strengthen and unify. Compared to the ideological struggle with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, and to the major cold war battlefields in Europe and Asia, Laos often seemed a small-scale skirmish in the fight against communism. In the last six months of Eisenhower's second term, however, Laos became a priority after a coup d'état, led by an obscure U.S.-trained paratroop captain, evolved into a superpower confrontation that threatened to become another Korean War or worse.Less

Committed to Victory: The Kentucky Home Front During World War II

Richard E. Holl

Manufacture of arms and munitions for the American military became a high priority for Kentucky companies after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Supervised by federal agencies such as the Office ... More

Manufacture of arms and munitions for the American military became a high priority for Kentucky companies after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Supervised by federal agencies such as the Office of Production Management and the War Production Board, Kentucky firms produced jeeps, cargo planes, machine guns, components for atomic bombs, and much more in the great effort to defeat the Axis. Management, labor, farmers, and other groups throughout the commonwealth joined together to aid the cause of freedom against totalitarianism. Governors Keen Johnson and Simeon Willis urged Kentuckians to do all they could to help win the war. Along the path toward ultimate triumph, Kentucky experienced massive out-migration to other states with even more vigorous wartime economies than its own, job gains for women and African Americans, and a growing need for entertainment to escape the hardships imposed by wartime work and worries. World War II left Kentucky a profoundly different place than it had been before the conflict. Prosperity reigned, not depression. Women, African Americans, and a part of the working class gained ground. Faith in the federal government had reached a new high. Hopes for an even better future were great despite a growing divide between white and black Kentuckians over the racial status quo and emerging concerns about the Soviet Union.Less

Crawfish Bottom: Recovering a Lost Kentucky Community

Douglas A. Boyd

A small neighborhood in north Frankfort, Kentucky, Crawfish Bottom was located on fifty acres of swampy land along the Kentucky River. “Craw's” reputation for vice, violence, moral corruption, and ... More

A small neighborhood in north Frankfort, Kentucky, Crawfish Bottom was located on fifty acres of swampy land along the Kentucky River. “Craw's” reputation for vice, violence, moral corruption, and unsanitary conditions made it a target for state funded urban renewal projects that replaced the neighborhood with Frankfort's Capital Plaza in the mid 1960s. This book traces the evolution of the controversial, yet close-knit community that saw 400 families ultimately displaced by urban renewal policies. Using oral histories and first-hand memories, this book not only provides a record of a vanished neighborhood and its culture but also exemplifies the ways in which this type of study enhances the historical record. A former Frankfort policeman described Craw's residents by saying, “They were a rough class of people, who didn't mind killing or being killed.” This book challenges history's judgmental stance by understanding how the former residents of Craw, sometimes unified by their memories and nostalgia, re-imagine and frame their community's history and how this process influences their sense of place.Less

A Doctor for Rural America: The Reforms of Frances Sage Bradley

Barbara Barksdale Clowse

Frances Sage Bradley (1862-1949) was one of the first female graduates of Cornell University Medical College (1899). She spent the next half century advancing the causes of public health and medical ... More

Frances Sage Bradley (1862-1949) was one of the first female graduates of Cornell University Medical College (1899). She spent the next half century advancing the causes of public health and medical care for neglected women, infants, and children. In 1915 she closed her private practice and became a medical field agent for the US Children’s Bureau in isolated rural areas of ten states, including Appalachia. Enactment of the federal Maternity and Infant Protection Act of 1921 [Sheppard-Towner Act] opened further healthcare reform opportunities. A prolific writer, the doctor generated voluminous official reports and dozens of freelance articles and stories. Those trying today to provide primary healthcare to underserved Americans face many of the same obstacles that challenged Dr. Bradley a century ago.Less

The Dream Is Lost: Voting Rights and the Politics of Race in Richmond, Virginia

Julian Maxwell Hayter

The Dream Is Lost describes more than three decades of national/local racial politics and the unintended consequences of the civil rights movement. It uses the mid-twentieth-century urban history of ... More

The Dream Is Lost describes more than three decades of national/local racial politics and the unintended consequences of the civil rights movement. It uses the mid-twentieth-century urban history of Richmond, Virginia, to explain the political abuses that often accompanied American electoral reforms. The rights embodied in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 cannot be explained by separating the mobilization of black voters, on one hand, and federal policy directed toward race, on the other. The story first examines the suffrage crusades that predated the Voting Rights Act and how an organization called the Richmond Crusade for Voters mobilized African Americans a decade prior to 1965. As the Crusade mobilized voters, its members met firm resistance from their white counterparts. Local people and federal officials beat back the forces of white resistance by implementing majority–minority district systems. Although the reapportionment revolution led directly to the election of a black-majority city council in Richmond in 1977, it, too, had unintended consequences. The very forces that made Richmond’s majority–minority district system possible—an increase in African American populations in densely packed enclaves, unremitting residential segregation, white flight, and urban retrenchment—were the same that brought about intensifying marginalization in black communities during the twilight of the twentieth century. This story follows black voter mobilization to its logical conclusion: black empowerment and governance. It demonstrates that mid-twentieth-century urban redevelopment left a lasting impression on America’s cities. Richmond’s black-majority council struggled to negotiate the tension between rising expectations in black communities, sustained white resistance, and structural forces beyond the realm of politics.Less

Frank L. McVey and the University of Kentucky: A Progressive President and the Modernization of a Southern University

Eric A. Moyen

In 1917, fifty-two years after its founding, the University of Kentucky faced stagnation, financial troubles, and disturbing reports of nepotism, resulting in a leadership crisis. A special committee ... More

In 1917, fifty-two years after its founding, the University of Kentucky faced stagnation, financial troubles, and disturbing reports of nepotism, resulting in a leadership crisis. A special committee investigated the institution and issued a report calling for a massive transformation of the university, including the hiring of a new president who could execute the report's suggested initiatives. The Board of Trustees hired Frank L. McVey. McVey labored tirelessly for more than two decades to establish Kentucky as one of the nation's most respected institutions of higher learning, which brought him recognition as one of the leading progressive educators in the South. This book chronicles McVey's triumphs and challenges as the president sought to transform the university from a small state college into the state's flagship institution. McVey recruited an exceptional faculty, expanded graduate programs, promoted research, oversaw booming enrollments and campus construction, and defended academic freedom during the nation's first major antievolution controversy. Yet he faced challenges related to the development of modern collegiate athletics, a populace suspicious of his remarkable new conception of a state university, and the Great Depression.Less

Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s

Yanek Mieczkowski

History has not been kind to Gerald Ford. His name evokes an image of either America's only unelected president, who abruptly pardoned his corrupt predecessor, or an accident-prone man who failed to ... More

History has not been kind to Gerald Ford. His name evokes an image of either America's only unelected president, who abruptly pardoned his corrupt predecessor, or an accident-prone man who failed to provide skilled leadership to a country in domestic turmoil. This book reexamines Ford's two and a half years in office, showing that his presidency successfully confronted the most vexing crises of the postwar era. Surveying the state of America in the 1970s, the book focuses on the economic challenges facing the country. It argues that Ford's understanding of the national economy was better than that of any other modern president, that Ford oversaw a dramatic reduction of inflation, and that his attempts to solve the energy crisis were based in sound economic principles. Throughout his presidency, Ford labored under the legacy of Watergate. Democrats scored landslide victories in the 1974 midterm elections, and the president engaged with a spirited opposition Congress. Within an anemic Republican Party, the right wing challenged Ford's leadership, even as pundits predicted the death of the GOP. Yet Ford reinvigorated the party and fashioned a 1976 campaign strategy against Jimmy Carter that brought him from thirty points behind to a dead heat on election day. This book draws on numerous personal interviews with the former president, cabinet officials, and members of the Ninety-fourth Congress. In this reassessment of this underrated president, Ford emerges as a skilled executive, an effective diplomat, and a leader with a clear vision for America's future. Working to heal a divided nation, Ford unified the GOP and laid the groundwork for the Republican resurgence in subsequent decades.Less

A History of Education in Kentucky

William E. Ellis

This book is divided into four periods: 1775 to the beginning of the Civil War, the Civil War to 1900, 1900 to 1941, and World War II to the mid-1980s. Where K12 and higher education intersect, these ... More

This book is divided into four periods: 1775 to the beginning of the Civil War, the Civil War to 1900, 1900 to 1941, and World War II to the mid-1980s. Where K12 and higher education intersect, these connections are developed and explained. The book's epilogue also explains the reforms brought about through the Kentucky Education Reform Act and the changes that occurred in higher education from the Patton years to the near present. The history of education in Kentucky cannot be understood without a grounding in political, social, economic, and ethnic history. Moreover, what happens in Kentucky is always part of a larger world, including the southern and Midwestern regions of the United States.Less

Irvin S. Cobb: The Rise and Fall of an American Humorist

William E. Ellis

Born and raised in Paducah, Kentucky, Irvin S. Cobb rose from his humble beginnings to national renown as one of America’s most celebrated writers during the early twentieth century. Shortly after ... More

Born and raised in Paducah, Kentucky, Irvin S. Cobb rose from his humble beginnings to national renown as one of America’s most celebrated writers during the early twentieth century. Shortly after leaving Kentucky for New York, Cobb earned a job at Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and became one of the highest paid staff reporters in the United States. Soon he was writing articles and short stories for magazines as well. Today, Cobb is remembered best for his sharp wit expressed through his fiction. As a product of Reconstruction and the Jim Crow South, Cobb’s subtle racism has largely denied him prominence in American memory, but his work provides a unique insight into the prevailing mind-set of his time. In Irvin S. Cobb: The Rise and Fall of an American Humorist, historian William E. Ellis examines the life of this significant writer, contextualizing his humor within the “Lost Cause” narrative. The son of a Confederate soldier and nephew of a famous Confederate artillery officer, Cobb was ensnared by southernracism, often bemoaning the North’s treatment of the South and creating stereotypical African American characters in his work. Even though he left Kentucky for the financially greener pastures of New York, Cobb never forgot his southern roots. His native Paducah molded him into a great storyteller, an engaging humorist, anobservant reporter, and a racist. Despite his flaws, Cobb’s vivid and humorous portrayals of Kentucky won him fame, wealth, and influence for decades.Less

James Still: A Life

Carol Boggess

James Still was a twentieth century American writer of poetry, stories, children’s literature, and folklore. His most enduring work was the 1940 novel River of Earth. This literary biography tells ... More

James Still was a twentieth century American writer of poetry, stories, children’s literature, and folklore. His most enduring work was the 1940 novel River of Earth. This literary biography tells the story of Still’s life, which was simultaneously simple and complex, solitary and public, transparent and mysterious. Though born in Alabama, educated in Tennessee, and widely traveled in the world, Still and his writing are inseparably associated with the hills of eastern Kentucky: specifically, Hindman Settlement School and his log house on Dead Mare Branch. The biography explores how the place shaped him and his writing, and how this “man of the bushes” became a public figure, a cultural legend that influenced the rise of Appalachian literature. During his last twenty years, many people came to know a charismatic James Still, but few were allowed into his private world. This story of that world explores how his life experiences connected to his creativity. Being of his hills provided James Still an identity and anchor. His life story should help move his work beyond the hills to the wider audience it deserves. Research for the project relied largely on letters and documents in archival collections at University of Kentucky and Morehead State University. Conversations with Still before his death are supplemented with 75 interviews of friends, family, and colleagues.Less

Kentucky and the Great War: World War I on the Home Front

David J. Bettez

This book focuses primarily on the Kentucky home front during World War I. It describes how Kentuckians responded to the outbreak of the war in Europe and their response after the United States ... More

This book focuses primarily on the Kentucky home front during World War I. It describes how Kentuckians responded to the outbreak of the war in Europe and their response after the United States entered the war in April 1917. Guided by the Kentucky Council of Defense, Kentuckians throughout the commonwealth, from small coal camps to large cities, generally supported the war through Liberty Loans, Red Cross campaigns, and efforts to conserve food and fuel. The book covers opposition to the war; the draft; the war’s effect on the economy; and how the war affected women, children, and African Americans. One chapter focuses on military camps, primarily the extensive new Camp Zachary Taylor south of Louisville. Other chapters examine the role of religion and higher education in support of the war. One chapter discusses Kentuckians who went abroad in military and civilian service. The final chapter covers the end of the war, the Spanish flu epidemic, and memorialization efforts after the war.Less

Liquor in the Land of the Lost Cause: Southern White Evangelicals and the Prohibition Movement

Joe L. Coker

The temperance movement first appeared in America in the 1820s as an outgrowth of the same evangelical fervor that fostered a wide range of reform campaigns. Like many of these movements, temperance ... More

The temperance movement first appeared in America in the 1820s as an outgrowth of the same evangelical fervor that fostered a wide range of reform campaigns. Like many of these movements, temperance was confined primarily to the northeastern United States during the antebellum period. Viewed with suspicion by Southerners because of its close connection to the antislavery movement, prohibition sentiment remained relatively weak in the antebellum South. After the Civil War, however, southern evangelicals embraced the movement, and by 1915, liquor had been officially banned from the region. This book examines how southern evangelical men and women transformed a Yankee moral reform movement into an ideology that was compatible with southern culture and values.Less

Moonshiners and Prohibitionists: The Battle over Alcohol in Southern Appalachia

Bruce E. Stewart

Homemade liquor has played a prominent role in the Appalachian economy for nearly two centuries. The region endured profound transformations during the extreme prohibition movements of the nineteenth ... More

Homemade liquor has played a prominent role in the Appalachian economy for nearly two centuries. The region endured profound transformations during the extreme prohibition movements of the nineteenth century, when the manufacturing and sale of alcohol—an integral part of daily life for many Appalachians—was banned. This book chronicles the social tensions that accompanied the region's early transition from a rural to an urban-industrial economy. The book analyzes the dynamic relationship of the bootleggers and opponents of liquor sales in western North Carolina, as well as conflict driven by social and economic development that manifested in political discord. The book also explores the life of the moonshiner and the many myths that developed around hillbilly stereotypes.Less

Never Say Die: A Kentucky Colt, the Epsom Derby, and the Rise of the Modern Thoroughbred Industry

James C. Nicholson

Never Say Die tells the story of the first Kentucky-bred winner of the Epsom Derby, whose historic 1954 victory in Europe’s most famous race sent shockwaves through the world of Thoroughbred racing. ... More

Never Say Die tells the story of the first Kentucky-bred winner of the Epsom Derby, whose historic 1954 victory in Europe’s most famous race sent shockwaves through the world of Thoroughbred racing. Never Say Die’s win in the Epsom Derby was an early signal of a shift in the balance of power within the sport of Thoroughbred racing toward North America. In the two decades that followed, American horses - long derided as inferior to European runners -- would enjoy an unprecedented period of success in some of Europe’s most prestigious races, sending the world’s leading Thoroughbred owners to Kentucky in search of top equine prospects. The infusion of international capital created a boom in Kentucky bloodstock markets in the 1970s and 1980sand laid the groundwork for the modern international structure of the multi-billion-dollar Thoroughbred industry. The unusual cast of characters in New Say Die’s story include: Isaac Merritt Singer, the bigamist inventor of the globally popular Singer sewing machine; Robert Sterling Clark, an accused conspirator in a plot to overthrow the United States government and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune; the Aga Khan, the immensely wealthy spiritual leader of some fifteen million Ismaili Muslims; and Mona Best, whose decision to pawn her jewelry to place a bet on Never Say Die to win the Derby would impact the career of the most successful musical group of all time, the Beatles.Less

The New Southern University: Academic Freedom and Liberalism at UNC

Charles Holden

This book examines the growth of the University of North Carolina (UNC) during the school's formative years between the World Wars. Academic freedom—its history and its current meaning—is often ... More

This book examines the growth of the University of North Carolina (UNC) during the school's formative years between the World Wars. Academic freedom—its history and its current meaning—is often misunderstood within and without the academy. This book takes an “on the ground” approach to the history of academic freedom. It focuses on how in the early 1900s the newly heralded principle of academic freedom led to UNC's role as an expertly trained advocate for improving labor relations and race relations in the South. UNC's reputation as one of the South's leading institutions of higher education drew some of the nation's top educators to its classrooms and helped it become a regional model of the modern university. This generation of professors defined themselves as truth-seekers whose work had the potential to enact positive social change; while university leaders like Frank Graham defended the professors' freedom to choose and cultivate their own curriculum and research to obtain this goal. Proponents of academic freedom argued that the expertise of the faculty would help lift the state and even the entire South out of poverty and place it on the road to progress. However, its location in the country's most conservative region presented challenges as new ideas of academic freedom and liberalism central to its educational philosophy sparked loud opposition among business leaders, anticommunists, white supremacists, and conservatives generally.Less

Nothing Less Than War: A New History of Americas Entry into World War I

Justus D. Doenecke

This history of how Woodrow Wilson attempted to keep the United States out of World War I is also an exercise in nostalgia for an era when Americans debated a war before the president launched one ... More

This history of how Woodrow Wilson attempted to keep the United States out of World War I is also an exercise in nostalgia for an era when Americans debated a war before the president launched one rather than afterward. The book states that Americans greeted Germany's 1914 invasion of Belgium with horrified fascination, but with little sense of foreboding. Most citizens and President Woodrow Wilson favored the Allies, but wanted to remain neutral. The book recounts how this feeling gradually changed over two and a half years in response to Germany's self-defeating actions, the foremost being the new submarine warfare, which, raising fears for the safety of passenger ships, was viewed by many as no less ghastly than terrorism is today. It paints portraits of leading figures, many now obscure, including Franklin Delano, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Jennings Bryan, plus the jumble of newspapers, magazines, organizations, diplomats, and propagandists who fought (at times literally) over this issue.Less