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Central to his evaluation of this immigrant group is their role in the transformation of English America into British America. His choice of an historic time frame for his subject is significant. The Glorious Revolution (1689) and the Treaty of Paris (1763) — fundamental moments in British history which come to define modem Britain — also, in Griffin's view, defined the Scots Irish. The author's extensive archival research focuses, in fact, on a more narrow time frame and constructs its argument by examining the Ulster migration of 17181729 when the conditions of out-migration were shaped by the Old Light-New Light divisions in Ulster Presbyterianism and by crisis in the linen industry. He then follows this first wave of Ulster settlers to Pennsylvania in the 1730s and 1740s when the Great Awakening further polarized the new American settlers. The value of this more narrow focus is that it provides an in-depth analysis of community conflict and religious change in Ulster and Pennsylvania that enriches our understanding of the Scots Irish. The weakness is that by understating the larger Ulster legacy of the Scots Irish, including the history of early plantation and the subsequent 18th century evolution of Ulster society, and by not carrying his account in any detail beyond the Pennsylvania settlements in the 1740s, Griffin underestimates the extraordinary evolution and adaptation of the Scots Irish and the impact of the frontier. However, students who read Griffin's work in the context of other recent Scot Irish scholarship will find his close study of their political and religious culture in the first phase of migration to be new and enlightening. —Curtis W Wood, Jr. Crystal Wilkinson. Water Street. Toby Press, 2002. 174 pages. $19.95 Hardcover. After a rather stellar narrative debut with Blackberries, Blackberries (2000), Crystal Wilkinson's second collection, Water Street (2002), is somewhat a disappointment. Although Wilkinson continues to wield great power as a storyteller of short, poignant narratives, she fails at her attempt to construct a cohesive collection through linking together these short narratives into a sustained work. Fortunately, Wilkinson maintains a strong artistic sense about writing and because of that her stories continue to inspire. Perhaps the characteristic that is most noticeable about Wilkinson's fiction is its celebration of place. As a Southern writer, she joins the 78 ranks of such icons as Faulkner and Welty in her regard for place. However, it is as a Black Southern writer that she creates a celebratory space for the "Affrilachian" experience. To say that Wilkinson holds the highest respect for such experience simply states the obvious, for to be sure she is nearly a singular voice in that regard. More to the point is that she treats with tremendous courage and empathy an aspect of the African-American experience that is seldom acknowledged, let alone examined. Wilkinson's "place" is Stanford, Kentucky, a setting that is "almost Southernbut not northern at all." It is here in this country place that she examines with great care the lives of mostly Black children— those who have been born there, or born again there as the case may be, and who continue to draw sustenance from their roots. Through fourteen cleverly arranged short narratives, Wilkinson presents the lives of as many of the Water Street sons and daughters. The opening chapter, "Welcome to Water Street," is an introduction of sorts that immediately evokes the opening of Gloria Naylor's The Women ofBrewster Place. In fact, Wilkinson's introduction is very nearly derivative of Naylor's but with a decidedly Appalachian flavor. Unfortunately, the general portrait of Water Street is much less artistically rendered. Although it serves to frame the collection, Water Street itself fails to emerge with a character of its own and therefore fails to provide the much-needed cohesion for the work. What is left is an occasional mention of the street, but neither a motif nor a metaphor that binds the narratives together with any tension or sustaining power. Although the first narrative in the collection is the previously published, award-winning "My Girl Mona," it is, despite its status, not one of the strongest or most appealing narratives. It is intriguing, certainly, not...

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