A Concise History of Kentucky (review)

A Concise History of Kentucky is a work that makes Kentucky’s history accessible to a very large audience of readers who are looking for an engaging journey into the past. James C. Klotter, who has a long career and background in Kentucky history, and his wife, Freda C. Klotter, who puts her roots in the education field to good use, have adapted their earlier elementary-school textbook, Faces of Kentucky (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006), into a traditional paperback book for the general public. Beginning with two chapters on Native American history and the early European exploration and settlement of the state, the book moves to thematic chapters on the diversity of Kentucky’s human and physical geography, the establishment and development of state government, and life in Kentucky from clothing styles, amusements, and health issues over time. This pattern of two chapters of chronological history followed by two to three chapters based around themes continues throughout the rest of the work. Other thematic chapters include education, work, music, literature, and art. The Klotters write about many of the unique aspects of Kentucky’s history and the important role the state and Kentuckians played in national history until the Civil War. In the twentieth century, as the image of Kentucky changed and population growth slowed, the state did not figure as prominently. However, Kentuckians continued to play major roles in government (Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson and Vice President Alben Barkley) and the arts (writers Robert Penn Warren and Wendell Berry, actor George Clooney, and musicians Loretta Lynn and Bill Monroe).

A valuable aspect to this work is the sidebar presentations. “Kentucky Lives” introduces readers to well-known and not-so-well-known people throughout Kentucky’s history. These short biographies are tied to the subject discussed in the chapter and include Mary Ingles, believed to be the first white woman to come to Kentucky; Stephen Bishop, a slave who was a popular tour guide at Mammoth Cave; Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken; and Cora Wilson Stewart, an educator who started the Moonlight Schools for adult literacy. The other sidebars are titled “Kentucky Voices” and contain excerpts from diaries, letters, government documents, and oral histories. These small two- and three-paragraph presentations add a great deal of color and first-person interest to the overall historical narrative.

The work is well balanced in presenting information on every area of the state. Although the Bluegrass region dominates much of Kentucky history as the first region to be settled, the Klotters are careful to examine the issues and lives of people in the eastern, western, and northern areas of Kentucky. In addition, the history of minority groups is well represented in the work. African American lives are described under slavery and in the struggle for civil rights in the twentieth century, as well as the lives of Kentucky women from settlement to the present. The appendices include a listing of Kentucky counties, governors, Kentuckians who have served on the U.S. Supreme Court, and brief facts about the state. In recent years state histories have received renewed interest from historians. This work recommends itself to the general reader who is interested in an overview of Kentucky’s history from settlement to the present.