A Concise History of Kentucky by James C. Klotter, Freda C. Klotter (review)

BOOK REVIEWS which may well possess authority and longevity equal to Jones' s Union in Peril. Samuel Negus Texas Christian University James C. Klotter and Freda C. Klotter.A Concise History of Kentucky. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008. 238 pp. ISBN: 0742543048 paper), $ 19.95. With this work, Kentucky state historian James C. Klotter and longtime educator Freda C. Klotter set out to fill a gap in the literature on Kentucky history by writing a " concise, readable, and affordable introductory history of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its people " ( preface). A Concise f* History of Kentucky is 2 a brief but encyclopedic volume that examu . ines twelve thousand years of the state' s history beginning with preColumbian Native American societies to a short final chapter that speculates on Kentucky' s social and economic future in the twentyfirst century. The book has a notable pedigree; it is a slimmer revision of an earlier elementary school textbook written by the Klotters called Faces of Kentucky 2006), which won the American Association for State and Local History Award in 2007. For the most part, the Klotters have succeeded in writing a readable general history of Kentucky. The book's organization is sound and well ordered. Twelve pithy chapters are organized both chronologically and thematically and discuss a variety of areas including the frontier period, the structure of the state government, economic and educational developments, living conditions, musical and literary traditions, and regional differences. The authors also skillfully cover the standards which have made the state famous the world over such as tobacco cultivation, co· al mining, and the Kentucky Derby. Many will find the back matter useful: four short appendices supply information on colinties , governors, Kentuckians who served on the U.S. Supreme Court, and state facts, respectively. Furthermore, the many fine maps, illustrations, and photographs add to the writers' goal to create a re, idable introductory history of the Bluegrass state. Readers will appreciate how the Klotters' writing, both interesting and erudite, brings to life the history of Kentucky's different peoples and regions. Descriptions of Kentuckians' lives, white and black, men and women, are at the heart of this work. Some of the historical actors and their stories presented are familiar onesDaniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Henry Clay, Robert Penn Warren,and Muhammad Ali. Other notso familiar faces, such as slave Stephen Bishop who became a popular guide and explorer of Mammoth Cave and education reformer Cora Wilson Stewart, who, in 1911, started socalled moonlight schools to educate illiterate adults, are presented in sections entitled Kentucky Lives that are interspersed throughout the chapters. Readers will also find the sections called Kentucky Voices, excerpts from letters, diaries, and other primary sources, interesting and useful for comprehending the themes of each chapter. With the inclusion of these excerpts of primary sources, the authors allow readers unfamiliar with the study of the past to briey play the role of historian. Despite its readability, the work has some shortcomings. Chapter one begins FALL 2008 1 » R· ·,„.** 4- _ 4 4&*+* e . 7. ele..' 3il CONCISE 0 HI[ATORY OF »» 03'.4, KENTUCKY . .*'. 1..' I[ R A!} FR!': 11A'. Kl«': ER r 83 BOOK REVIEWS with " One meaning of the wordfrontier \ s a border between places. But those borders can be very different at different times 1). This statement suggests that this work might explore how Kentucky acted as · an amphorous borderland, an exceptional frontier of social and cultural transformations in the nation' s history. However, readers looking for an over· arching interpretative framework will not find it. Instead one should read the book as a collection of facts and colorful stories. Also,the work's documentation style leaves much to be desired. Specialists will be disappointed by the absence of either footnotes or endnotes . Also the book' s bibliography is far too brief. In any concise work,some topics are sure to receive short attention and this volume is no exception. For example, in chapter ten the authors examine the civil rights movement in Kentucky but do not mention the sedition trial of Carl Braden which took place in 1954 after he and his wife, Anne, purchased a home in Shively, a segregated suburb of Louisville...