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Book Reviews Lewis, Helen, and Suzanna O'Donnell, editors and compilers. Remembering Our Past, Building Our Future. Ivanhoe , Virginia: Ivanhoe Civic League, 1990. Paperback. 279 pages. Telling Our Stories, Sharing Our Lives. Ivanhoe, Virginia: Ivanhoe Civic League, 1990. Paperback. 255 pages. In the 1800s a local preacher put a curse on the community of Ivanhoe, Virginia , saying "Ivanhoe will never amount to a damn." A hundred years later, community residents lifted the curse through a symbolic Easter ritual that signaled the community's rebirth and transfiguration. Part of the process of renewal, and exorcism of past demons , was the production of these two volumes of local history by community residents. Local histories always are interesting , but seldom significant beyond their locales. These volumes are different . They differ because they probe the complexity of historical consciousness, recognize the necessity of understanding historical contexts larger than the community , and wisely construct a history from voices and perspectives that cut across divisions of race, class, gender, and ethnicity. These two volumes tell the story of how one small community was settled, industrialized, "developed," and then deindustrialized and declining, now undergoing revitalization and looking to its future. The first volume covers the early times of settlement, the boom days of industrialization, social and cultural life in the early community, the hard times of depression, disasters, and decline in the local economy, and ends with "new beginnings" for the community in more recent days, as the community embarks on a path of self-determination. The story is told by combining more traditional historical research with passages from oral histories with local residents. The book is lavishly illustrated with fascinating photographs of Ivanhoe, its people, and its institutions from earliest days to the present. Additional interest comes from vignettes written about local residents by contributors to the history project and from poetry written by Ivanhoe residents. Of particular interest in this volume are details about the evolution of industry in Ivanhoe from early discoveries of mineral deposits to the development of the large carbide company that dominated the community, and finally the demise of the industry that had provided jobs and identity for the community. Issues of social stratification and race relations arising from the conditions of work are tackled head-on in this account . Even more thought-provoking is the development of political consciousness in the community in the wake of such an economic jolt as the loss of the major employer. This volume chronicles the formation of Ivanhoe' s civic league, the members' wrangles with politicians and government agencies, and the community's successes and failures. Through the process of analysis and reflection that culminated in the publication of this book, the people of Ivanhoe recount their growing awareness that a community may depend on an industry for jobs, but not for selfdefinition . It is a tribute to the local historians of Ivanhoe that they do not gloss over unpleasant episodes of their past and present. They tell of rough and rowdy early days that included lynchings, moonshining, and murder; they tell of more recent divisiveness in the community between some residents and the 67 leadership of the reyitalization efforts. They understand that in the tapestry of history you learn as much from the battle scenes as from more idyllic pictures of the past. There are idyllic pictures, nevertheless, including stories of box suppers and local music, airplane rides and baseball teams, midwives and home remedies, and parades that are at once community celebrations and political statements. The second volume of Ivanhoe's history project collects the full texts of oral histories that form much of the substance of the first volume. It includes interviews with residents made before the current project began (as early as 1928), and interviews on subjects about the social and cultural life of Ivanhoe in past years, work at the carbide plant, and the work of the civic league in recapturing the community's hold on its future. The second volume concludes with a chronology of events in Ivanhoe's history and simultaneous events in national and world history. This chronology argues for the need to record history locally as well as globally, and to understand the interplay between...

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