Tennessee Library Association

Tennessee Libraries

2007 Volume 57 Number 4

Book Reviews

Rebecca Tolley-Stokes, East Tennessee State University Book Review Editor

Bales, Stephen Lyn. Natural Histories: Stories from the Tennessee Culvahouse, Tim (editor) with photographs by Richard Barnes. The Tennessee Valley Authority: Design and Persuasion Fitzgerald, Stephanie. The Scopes Trial: The Battle over Teaching Evolution Hemphill, Helen. Runaround Lawrence, William P. and Rosario Rausa. Tennessee Patriot: The Naval Career of Vice Admiral William P. Lawrence, U.S. McCrumb, Sharyn. Once Around the Track Kidd, Ronald. Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial Montgomery, Michael, and Ellen Johnson, vol. eds. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Vol. 5 (Language) Olwell, Russell B. At Work in the Atomic City : A Labor and Social history of Oak Ridge, Tennessee Rail-Trails Southeast: The Official Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Guidebook VanLiere, Donna. The Angels of Morgan Hill Trevathan, Kim. Coldhearted River: A Canoe Odyssey Down the Cumberland Van Willigen, John and Anne Van Willigen, editors. Food and Everyday Life on Kentucky Walker-Hill, Helen. From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music Waselkov, Gregory A., Peter H. Wood & Tom Hatley, volume editors. Powhatan’s Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast, Revised and Expanded Edition Wilson, Charles Reagan, vol. ed. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Vol. 3 (History)

Bales, Stephen Lyn. Natural Histories : Stories from the Tennessee Valley. With a foreword by Sam Venable. Outdoor Tennessee Series, ed. Jim Casada. Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, 2007. 312 pp. ISBN 1572335610. $24.95

Natural Histories is comprised of sixteen essays, four for each season of the year, about the various plants and animals that can be found in the Tennessee Valley. The author, Stephen Lyn Bales, works at the Ijams Nature Center as a naturalist in Knoxville. He has previously written columns about nature and the environment in local and regional newspapers. Bales is also an artist, as he provides his own illustrations which accompany the start of each chapter. He also created the cover art for the book.

This book is part of the Outdoor Tennessee Series, published by the University of Tennessee Press. The series aims to promote a greater understanding of the environment. Bale paints a vivid picture about the natural world; this book is not just an encyclopedic explanation of plants and animals with the usual description of habitat, feeding habits, and life expectancy. Each essay begins with the animal or plant that he profiles, and somewhere in the course of the essay readers will find themselves learning about the human impact upon the featured organism on history and society and vice versa.

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The author includes a variety of sources in his bibliography. The bibliography also directs readers to online copies of some of the sources referenced. A comprehensive index. concludes the book.

This book is suitable for a general audience. However, it will probably appeal most to readers who already enjoy reading books about nature, the environment, current conservation efforts, or by those who like to be outdoors in the Tennessee Valley. Although those in the Tennessee Valley may have a greater appreciation for the locations that Bales writes about, any reader, regardless of their location, should still enjoy this book and not feel like they are being left out. This book is recommended for all public and academic libraries, especially for libraries that would like to add a nature/ecology book specific to Tennessee to their collections.

Maya N. Berry Acquisitions & Public Services Librarian Christian Brothers University

Culvahouse, Tim (editor) with photographs by Richard Barnes. The Tennessee Valley Authority: Design and Persuasion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007. 144 pp. ISBN 156898684X. $40.00.

Certainly in its time and still today, the accomplishments of the Tennessee Valley Authority stand apart from other engineering endeavors. This unique government agency was established in 1933 and given a remarkable mission that would change landscape and people across a broad stretch of America’s heartland. Culvahouse’s book addresses the intellectual and social mindset behind the TVA’s radical revision of the Tennessee valley.

Essays in this book revolve around a central theme laid out in the editor’s introduction: Modernism and the belief in the power of design to aid in the construction of an egalitarian, democratic society was the construct underlying the philosophy of the architects, engineers and designers who created TVA projects. Design in the early 20th century was based on three principles: “continuity with the landscape, forms derived from engineering function, and architectural form as a tool for social equality.” (p. 19) Contributors to this book—whose areas of expertise cover architecture, landscape architecture, graphic design, industrial design and fine arts—articulate the ways in which these modern design principles invigorated and informed philosophy and practice at the TVA.

Architecture, the physical manifestation of the TVA’s social mission, is central to any discussion of the TVA and design. Christine Macy’s essay is quite aptly devoted to Richard Wank, the chief architect for the TVA from 1933 until the early 1940s. Wank, like many who designed for the TVA and like his European counterpart Gropius, believed form should follow function. That emphasis was best expressed in the dams (TVA housing tended more towards the traditional to ease the transition towards modernism), which, by 1941 were being hailed as important American contributions to avant-garde design.

Mention of the Tennessee Valley Authority has always, and will always, evoke conflicting feelings. Its ambitious social mission could not assuage the pain of those who lost homes, farms and beloved landmarks. This aspect of TVA is acknowledged here, particularly in Jane Wolf’s essay, “Redefining Landscape,” and in Jennifer Bloomer’s contribution, “Watauga.” Re-designing the landscape was a radical act according to Wolf. By re-shaping the land the TVA created a vast new region linked by the Tennessee river and TVA development projects. This man-made landscape corrected some of the negative effects of bad land management, brought modern technology to an impoverished area, and provided recreation areas to feed the new tourism industry. One cannot help but ask, as Wolf does, what was lost in the process of creating the new? Bloomer’s reflective essay on Lake Watauga provides something of an answer to this complex question.

Barry M. Katz, Steven Heller, and Todd Smith, in their discussions of industrial design, graphics, and the fine arts round out this investigation of the relationship between modern design and the TVA’s campaign to modernize the Tennessee River Valley. Taken together, the essays combined with Richard Barnes’ insightful photographs and a concise bibliography make this book a small, but valuable contribution to the TVA bibliography, and a recommended purchase for public as well as academic libraries.

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Susan M. Hanson, Library Specialist Special Collections,Walker Library, MTSU

Fitzgerald, Stephanie. The Scopes Trial: The Battle over Teaching Evolution. Minneapolis, Minn.: Compass Point Books, 2007. 96 pp. ISBN 075620185. $24.95.

This middle grades book in the Snapshots in History series provides readers with an excellent description of the summer of 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. An entire nation had its eyes and ears on this very small East Tennessee community as reporters and spectators from all parts of the country overran the town and, “for the first time in history, a trial would be broadcast over the radio”. Of course, the focus was the Scopes trial, on the surface a battle over the teaching of evolution, but ultimately, a test of our constitutional laws regarding freedom of speech and separation of church and state.

The author provides background material in a lively and entertaining fashion. Explanations of fundamentalism, the development of the theory of evolution, the conflicts between evolution and creationism, and the mechanics of constitutional law are included. In addition, Ms. Fitzgerald provides portraits of the persons that were a part of the trial process: John Scopes, William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, and others. Our laws, cultural values, and court proceedings are explained succinctly, but well. Facts are presented in a way that demonstrates to the reader that most things are not black and white, but gray.

A feature that enhances the book’s usefulness and quality is the wonderful original photography of the trial, its setting, and its participants; their arrangement and placement is fine and they provide context to the event. Included also is a timeline beginning in 1543, a glossary that defines in simple but accurate language, terms such as creationism, fundamentalism, grand jury, and testimony, and a good website that leads the reader to online information. The book also provides source notes, a bibliography, further reading, and an index – all is well organized.

The Scopes Trial is included in the accelerated reader program and has a reading and interest level for grades 6-8, although adults may also find it enjoyable and informative. Recommended for public and school libraries.

Sandra Clariday Merner Pfeiffer Library,Tennessee Wesleyan College

Hemphill, Helen. Runaround. Asheville: Front Street, 2007. ISBN 1932425837.

Helen Hemphill delivers this follow up to her first book Long Gone Daddy that was released in 2005. This book is also written for the young adult who is struggling to find their place in the world.

The lead character in this book is Sassy, an eleven-year-old girl who has had her first kiss, but wants real love, the kind of love she reads about in the romance magazines that she secrets in the corner of her closet. Sassy’s mother has been dead for several years and her older sister Lula is more interested in Elvis than in teaching Sassy the ways of love. Add a housekeeper, Miss Dallas, who carries around her own love secret and the plot certainly thickens.

This book builds slowly and then takes several startling turns before settling down to an uneasy resolution that will keep the teenage girls

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Cathy Farley, Director White County Public Library Sparta, TN

Lawrence, William P. and Rosario Rausa. Tennessee Patriot: The Naval Career of Vice Admiral William P. Lawrence, U.S. Navy. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2006. 230 pp. ISBN 159114700X. $28.95

In the forward to this book, H. Ross Perot calls Bill Lawrence (1930-2005) an “American Hero of Heroes” and this autobiography proves this to be true. Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, he was a true southern gentleman and patriot. His outstanding career in the navy started when he was appointed to the Naval Academy at Annapolis where he showed himself to be a leader both on the athletic field and off. An Honor Code that he initiated is still in use today.

His description of his naval aviation career clearly shows his love of flying and also gives valuable insights to anyone interested in flying. Although he could have written a whole book about his almost six years as a prisoner of war in the “Hanoi Hilton,” he only skims the surface of what he and his fellow prisoners suffered. He prefers to focus on the positive things, such as the bravery of the other prisoners, their communication techniques, and the ways he and others kept going in the face of such adversity. During this time he wrote the poem, “Oh Tennessee, My Tennessee” that later became the state poem of Tennessee. The chapter covering his release from prison is the only part of the book that lets you see the strong emotions of this dedicated man. It is in this chapter that he talks about his pride in his children and his great love and admiration for his parents. Throughout the book he credits others with aiding him to move ahead. He later became a fleet commander, Superintendent of the Naval Academy, held various posts in the Pentagon, and even after his retirement he continued to support the Navy in any way he could.

The book contains an epilogue written by Admiral Lawrence’s second wife, Diane Wilcox Lawrence which chronicles their marriage and his final days. A nice group of photos, a list of acronyms used in the text, and a comprehensive index are also included. Anyone who has an interest in the Navy, both air and sea, will enjoy this refreshing account of the life of a highly successful naval officer. It is recommended for high school, public and academic libraries.

Sue Alexander, User Services Librarian James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University

McCrumb, Sharyn. Once Around the Track. New York: Kensington Books, 2007. 320 pp. ISBN 0758207786 $25.00.

In St. Dale, McCrumb followed NASCAR fans on their pilgrimage to race tracks to pay tribute to their fallen hero, Dale Earnhardt. In Once Around the Track, she examines the popular sport from the inside—the viewpoint of the crew and driver. Her fictional racing team is owned by a group of wealthy women and sponsored by Vagenya, a Viagra-type drug for women. To capitalize on publicity, they decide to field an all-female pit crew. The behind-the-scenes personnel and the driver will, of necessity, be men with successful NASCAR experience. So the cast of character is assembled: Badger Jenkins, the drop-dead gorgeous driver with lots of skill on the track, but not much patience with publicity obligations; Tuggle, the tough-as-nails crew chief; Rosalind Manning, the MIT engineer she goes into stock car racing to spite her mother; publicist Melanie Sark, who hopes to turn her experience into a Vanity Fair article; Taran Stiles, an adoring fan who just wants to be close to Badger and keep him safe. The villain of the piece is Melodie Albigre, who manipulates her way into becoming Badger’s personal manager.

Told with McCrumb’s usual attention to detail and humorous wit, this tale is an excellent introduction to the behind-the-scenes operations and emotions of a small racing team. Handled especially well is the mysterious transformation of a small, good-natured country boy into an

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Jean Flanigan Associate Director, Sherrod Library, ETSU

Kidd, Ronald. Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial. New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2006. 272 pp. ISBN 1416905723. $16.99.

In the summer of 1925, the sleepy southern town of Dayton, TN became a hotbed of politics and religion when the town elders embarked on a great publicity stunt known as the Scopes Trial. Local teacher John Scopes is charged with violating the Butler Act which prohibits the teaching of evolution in Tennessee Schools. The trial brings William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, and newspaper reporters from all over including H.L. Mencken. Complete upheaval sweeps through town and in the middle of the mayhem is the voice of the historical novel, fifteen year old Frances Robinson. Frances is the daughter of school board member, town elder, and respected businessman Frank Robinson. Throughout the book, the center of activity shifts between the courthouse and her father’s drugstore.

The very ideals Frances’ life and faith are based on become shaky ground as the trial progresses. She begins to doubt and mistrust fellow townspeople, friends, and even her father whom has the best of intentions but becomes blinded by his own ambition of putting Dayton on the map in hopes of revitalizing the sleepy town. The readers see a metamorphosis in Frances’ maturity from child to young woman. As science and religion go head to head in the courtroom, she wrestles with sorting through her own feelings on the subject. She is evolving and often speculates if she is the only one in town who wonders about life past the mountains that surround Dayton.

Ronald Kidd, a Nashville resident for nearly twenty years, captures Frances’ voice with grace and humor. He skillfully takes historical events and people and weaves a delectable tale of Tennessee history. He conveys the politics and workings of a small southern town along with the circus-like atmosphere that the “Monkey Trial” brings with it. Coming of age, small town life, science vs. religion, and inner struggles are common themes throughout. Monkey Town is a magnificently thoughtful and amusing historical novel for young adult readers.

Monkey Town is highly recommended for school and public libraries as well as academic libraries with youth collections.

Lara Beth Lehman, Curriculum Materials Center Manager Peabody Library, Vanderbilt University

Montgomery, Michael, and Ellen Johnson, vol. eds. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Vol. 5 (Language). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. ISBN 0807858064 226 pp. $19.95.

Michael Montgomery and Ellen Johnson’s contribution to the The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture is the fifth volume in an ongoing series revision and repackaging of the previously released, single-volume Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, published in 1989 by the University of North Carolina Press (when completed, the Encyclopedia will encompass 24 subject-specific volumes). Montgomery and Johnson’s volume is devoted to an exploration of Language, and this volume embraces its subject with an approach that is both scholarly in tone and yet easily understandable to the casual reader. Because the overarching focus of the Encyclopedia is on the centrality of culture, the Language volume seeks to, in Montgomery and Johnson’s words, provide an overview that “takes a broad, chronological look at the many languages and varieties that have been spoken in the southern states” in an attempt to capture the region’s “linguistic richness” and

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Montgomery, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at the University of South Carolina, has written extensively on the history and varieties of Southern American English, as well as the grammar and vocabulary of Appalachian English. Johnson, associate professor of linguistics at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, is the author of Lexical Change and Variation in the Southeastern United States (U of Alabama Press, 1996, 2004) and is working currently on the influence of Spanish in Appalachia. Together, these two scholars bring an impressive wealth of linguistic knowledge to this volume, making it enjoyable and informative reading. Within the Language volume, readers will find subjects ranging from longer entries on African American English and Appalachian English, as well as an impressive study of different indigenous Indian language varieties such as Caddo, Catawba, and Muskogean. The influences of French and Spanish on the Southern linguistic landscape are also handled expertly.

What readers will especially appreciate are the smaller entries that form the (literal) backbone of the volume. Like the other volumes in the Encyclopedia series, the Language volume devotes significant space for more narrowly-defined subject areas. For example, there are entries covering such topics as the Black Preaching Style, Politeness, and of course “Y’all.” And while the entries’ authors oftentimes veer in to using complex linguistic terminology, definitions are helpfully provided to assist the casual reader in navigating the entries. This methodology to the entries — an almost seamless combination of academic and lay tones — makes the Language volume a welcoming, approachable introduction and overview of one of the most challenging, and always changing, cultural subjects occurring in the South.

This volume, like the other volumes in the Encyclopedia series, provides an invaluable resource for academics and casual readers alike. It is highly recommended for both academic and medium- to large-size public libraries, and would make a welcome addition to these collections.

Nathan G. Tipton Independent Scholar Memphis, Tennessee

Olwell, Russell B. At Work in the Atomic City : A Labor and Social history of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2004. 165 pages. ISBN 1572333243. $29.00

This book is a history of the beginnings of Oak Ridge, Tennessee beginning with the development of the labor force of the Manhattan Project during World War II and the development of the community. The author relied on books, memos and interviews for the earlier insights of the World War II era, but continued into the post war years, with the expanded development of unions, the reduction of the military influence in Oak Ridge and the building of the community. Olwell’s book details the recruitment of the employees, the military atmosphere of the area, and the attempts of the unions, especially the AFL and the CIO to organize during and after the war.

Secret decisions were made during the beginning years of the Manhattan Project. Many were classified for security reasons and the actual work that the employees were doing was a secret even to them. Most of the employees did not realize the dangers of the materials they were working with, such as radiation and hazardous chemicals, and although some measures were taken, not nearly enough attention was given to the need for employee health and safety because of the need for speed in production. All of this was tied in with patriotism during the war. The city was also run by the military during the early years.

The lack of union representation for the employees made it difficult for grievances to be taken seriously. The need for secrecy was such that union involvement with the workers was impossible. As was shown many years later, if there was an issue that had to do with employee health and safety, too often it was given a classified status so that it did not have to be dealt with in any public admissions of responsibility by the various companies and governmental agencies that were involved. The three main plants, Y-12, K-25, and X-10 all had their specialties and each had hazards.

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Olwell has given an excellent account of the hardships that were endured by the workers during the war and the transformation from war time life to post war issues such as the need for better housing for the workers. The development of union influence after the war was demonstrated in the help they were able to give to the workers to get better housing. They were more successful in that area than in the working atmosphere at the plants. The need for the same production oriented atmosphere after the end of World War II due to the beginning of the cold war again emphasized production at the expense of employee safety. Olwell has given voice to the need for examining the balance of national security and the rights of individual citizens.

At Work in the Atomic City explored the potential compensation for employees, or their survivors, and the difficulty that has faced these former government workers because of the many years that the AEC did not admit publicly of the misdeeds that had occurred to the employees. The difficulty in reconstructing work records, etc. because of the many years of faulty record keeping has caused the compensation plan to be denied for many

Olwell, an assistant professor of history at Eastern Michigan University, has researched the nuclear weapons industry and has explored areas in the development of Oak Ridge and the Manhattan Project that had, previously, not been given enough attention. The book is a very good addition to modern history sections of academic and public libraries.

Sandra Allen Hodges Library,University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Rail-Trails Southeast: The Official Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Guidebook. Berkeley, CA: Wilderness Press, 2006. ISBN 0899974260. 203 pps. $15.95.

Often we think of hikers when we see trails in a title, but rail-trails can be accessed by bikers, cyclists, inline-skaters, horseback riders, and the wheelchair set as well. There’s a trail for everyone who loves the outdoors in this Rail-Trails Southeast guidebook. The trails included here have been selected from those in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Maybe you are wondering what a rail-trail is. Or if you guessed that it is a trail that goes along a railroad, you would be “right on track.” Rail-trails are public, multi-use paths that follow the corridor of former railroad tracks.

The Rail-to-Trails Conservancy is headquartered in Washington, D. C. and since 1986 has been working to preserve a bit of America’s history by transforming its railroad heritage into multi-use trails. There are more than 13,000 miles of these wonderfully diverse trails today. You can see such scenes as cautious commuters crossing busy intersections in South Dade, Florida, trestles and tunnels on the Silver Comet Trail in Georgia, shady woodlands on the Cathedral Aisle Trail in South Carolina, and limestone bluffs along the Cumberland River in Tennessee.

Each trail in the book has at least a one page description with a thumbnail photo to introduce you to the trail and usually one or two larger photos to further entice you. The descriptions vary from the scenic glimpses and logistics to those that tell a bit about the history of its railroad. Under the thumbnail photo you will find icons denoting recommended use, endpoints, trail mileage, roughness index (1 for smooth and level to 3 for dirt or gravel), and surface.

A map of each trail shows start- and end-points, parking, and restrooms. There are also directions for getting there, and contact information. A state map shows the general location of the trails in that state, but you may also want a more detailed map of the area to supplement these since the directions often seem to be local and may not provide details for those from other regions. Orientation from the nearest Interstate or a main city or well-know location as a starting place would have been helpful. The trails in each state are listed alphabetically rather than geographically, so geographic continuity, though noted in descriptions, is awkward to piece together.

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The book isn’t intended to provide in-depth information, but there’s a lot of information crammed into the 198 pages of this guidebook. If you are intrigued by rail-trails or interested mostly in knowing more about rail-trails in the Southeast this book is recommended. Be forewarned, though, that not much of it is in Tennessee. Of the 26 rail-trails in our state, only 3, two near Nashville and one in Memphis, are included here. Still, there’s plenty to tempt you to get out and get on some of these trails!

Beth Brown, Librarian Nashville Public Library, Nashville, TN

VanLiere, Donna. The Angels of Morgan Hill. New York: Saint Martin's Press, 2006. 240 pp. ISBN 0-312-33452-4. $ 14.95.

Donna VanLiere lives in Franklin, TN and is the author of The Christmas Shoes, The Christmas Blessing, and The Christmas Hope. She credits her parents' childhood stories of growing up in Greene County, Tennessee as the inspiration for the engrossing story of The Angels of Morgan Hill; in addition she says she also interviewed other people who grew up and farmed in rural Tennessee during the 1940s.

The story is set in a small rural community in east Tennessee in 1947. The story begins quickly as our narrator Jane tells us about the death of her father when she was nine and he was twenty eight. Jane's father Lonnie was drinking and playing cards one evening when he fell into a diabetic coma and died. Thus begins the story of the Gables: Jane, her pregnant mother Fran, and Jane's brother John, and their journey throughout the next year.

And what a year it is. Their life during that year is by turns happy, sad, frightening, inspiring, and bittersweet. A major event for the family occurs when they meet the town's first black family, who have come to work at a local family's farm to help harvest their tobacco fields. Jane's family befriends Willie Dean and Addy Turner and their young children, Rose and Milo, much to the horror of many church members as well as Lonnie's drinking buddies.

Tragedy befalls the Turners when all the family except Milo perish in a fire. Milo comes to live with the Gables; and their lives become a series of eye opening experiences. The children learn about prejudice and standing up for what is right. They also learn what it takes to make a family.

VanLiere writes well and her plot and characters truly come alive, and even with rather somber topics, the book is anything but gloomy. The writing is easy to digest. The book’s portrayal of rural East Tennessee during the 1940s is very well done and adds historical context to the story .

This title would make a good addition for public libraries and for community college libraries that purchase current fiction titles.

Jennifer Newcome, Librarian Hardwick--Johnston Memorial Library,Hiwassee College

Trevathan, Kim. Coldhearted River: A Canoe Odyssey Down the Cumberland. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006. ISBN 1572335300. 296 pages. $24.95.

Coldhearted River contains a mixture of adventure, geography, history, and environmentalism in the tradition of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. The author, Kim Trevathan, and his photographer friend, Randy Russell, decide to canoe the entire 696 mile length of the

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Cumberland River from Harlan, Kentucky through Nashville until the Cumberland joins the Ohio River at Smithland, Kentucky. Trevathan, a writing professor at Maryville College, made a similar trip on the Tennessee River in 1998, chronicled in Paddling the Tennessee River: A Voyage on Easy Water. The trip is, in Trevathan’s words, “a voyage of confrontation, as much against external forces as internal demons.” Although many parts of the book are rather negative as the author describes the “latent hostility” of the river and its people, it contains a great deal of interesting information. Environmental themes run throughout, from the tragedy of the trash, appliances, and cars on the riverbanks to the politics and economics of the dam system. There is also a wealth of historical information on the river itself and the areas it flows through. The settlement of Nashville, the history of Cumberland Falls as a resort area, Daniel Boone’s travels around the river, the Kentucky State Prison, keelboats, and Native American history are all interwoven through tales of severe thunderstorms, thoughtless boat pilots, and moments of transcendent beauty.

There are some factual errors, as when my hometown of Bumpus Mills is listed as “Bumphis Mills” (and in one place even “Bumphis Hills”). On the whole, the author seems to have put more energy into the account of the first part of the trip, a bit of a disappointment to those of us downriver from Nashville.

The book succeeds in sharing with the reader what most people want in an “adventure” book – the experience of escaping from our usual lives into a different mode of living, and with it a different perspective. Despite trash, dams, power boats, and other modern despoilers of the river, its wonder and beauty shine through Trevathan’s account of five weeks’ paddling. The intermingling of history and environmental awareness with the tale of the journey keeps it all engaging. Readers won’t look at the river the same way again. Recommended for public and academic libraries with interest in local history and travel.

DeAnne Luck TENN-SHARE

Van Willigen, John and Anne Van Willigen, editors. Food and Everyday Life on Kentucky Family Farms, 1920-1950. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006. 260 pp. ISBN 0-8131-2387-9. $35.00.

Kentucky farms, once prominent, have increasingly vanished in the last half-century. Since many traditions and ways of farming have changed, this book is an important record of Kentucky rural life in the early to mid-twentieth century. This time period (1920-1950), was marked by many changes in farming and rural life. These changes included new technologies, such as changing from mule to tractor in preparing land for planting, or Governmental, such as the New Deal market quota system. This book covers how these changes affected rural life.

This is the sixth volume in a series called Kentucky Remembered. Consisting primarily of oral histories, these remembrances give the reader a vivid account of rural life. These accounts come from all over Kentucky, giving the reader a snapshot of regional differences. The emphasis is on foodways, which is defined by the editors as “the practices, knowledge, and emotional patterns of a community or other group associated with food—its production, preparation, and consumption.”

Farming, food preparation (cooking, canning, curing and smoking meat, hog butchering), housework, raising livestock, tending gardens and field crops are covered. Hunting, trapping and fishing activities are also covered. These accounts of rural life are enhanced with recipes and photographs with captions.

For the most part these farm families were self-sufficient, producing most of what they consumed. However, there were times when they depended on stores, mail order or peddlers for goods. The editors devote a chapter to this topic.

The editors do a good job of tying the oral histories together by providing background information between oral history accounts. At the end of each chapter they also summarize the main points. The editors provide list of the narrators (and where they are from), an index and a list of references. There is also a list of illustrations at the beginning of the book.

This book is recommended for both public and academic libraries and well as any libraries that have a regional focus.

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Barbara VanHooser, Reference/ILL Librarian Brown-Daniel Library, Tennessee State University

Walker-Hill, Helen. From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007. 428 pp. ISBN 0-252-0745-8. $25.00

Until the day comes when scholarly, or for that matter general interest books can be written about successful people in particular fields without ghettoizing them into categories based on gender or race, this book serves well as what is surely an introduction for many to the significant number of African-American women who have found success in composing, and often also performing and/or conducting, “serious” music, here understood to include not only classical but also jazz compositions and music written for film and musical theater.

In her introduction, Walker-Hill deals with this issue, claiming that the “great majority” of the women she interviewed for this book see this categorization as necessary in order to begin their acceptance into the broader musical world. She then goes on to write an excellent historical overview of the creative contributions of black women composers in America and the events and attitudes of society that influenced them and their work. This chapter, like all succeeding ones, begins with a chronology, in this case from 1619 Jamestown to the 1999 ending of school busing.

After this overview, Walker-Hill devotes a chapter each to the eight women she has chosen to focus on, from Undine Smith Moore (1904- 89) to Regina Harris Baiocchi (b. 1956). Each chapter describes the life and works of the subject, explains the social issues influential in the her life and work, and after examining closely half a dozen of her compositions, ends with a complete list of works, including when they were composed and when, where and by whom they have been performed.

What is striking in almost every composer considered is the variety of the styles of music each one composed. Many began with church music, arranging familiar hymns and spirituals for performance by choral or instrumental groups. From there to the composition of original scores, both sacred and secular was not a big step for many.

Walker-Hill interviewed either the subjects themselves or people who knew them and her thorough research is evident in the careful chronologies, notes and discographies in her book. So too is her admiration for them and her regret that only these eight could be included in this work. While admitting that “(T)his book deals only with composers who have written down their compositions, and who have composed in more than one genre.” And “(T)he many hundreds of black women who specialize in writing only songs, or gospel music, or blues, or who improvise jazz or folk music, are beyond the scope of this study,” Walker-Hill includes an extensive Appendix listing six pages of “selected composers.”

Walker-Hill is the author of several other books on African-American women musicians and one would hope that she will have the opportunity to complete even more, bringing to light the contributions of this neglected subset of American composers.

One improvement to this book would be a CD of the compositions discussed so that the reader could listen along while reading about these outstanding women – to appreciate their music along with the obstacles they had to overcome to see their compositions published and performed in public.

From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music is highly recommended for both music libraries and academic and public libraries with collections on the history of music or women’s studies.

Penny Frere Executive Director TENN-SHARE

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Waselkov, Gregory A., Peter H. Wood & Tom Hatley, volume editors. Powhatan’s Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast, Revised and Expanded Edition. Lincoln, Nebraska:

Please send questions, comments, and suggestions to:

Annelle R. Huggins Executive Director Tennessee Library Association P.O. Box 241074 Memphis, TN 38124-1074 Phone: 901-485-6952 Email: [email protected]

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