North from the Mountains: A Folk History of the Carmel Melungeon Settlement, Highland County, Ohio by John S. Kessler, Donald B. Ball (review)

like advertising and labor disputes are covered in several different chapters: a thentatic orgatlization of this information would have been helpful. But Holian's story is well researched and appropriatel> footnoted, and it will be of interest to anyone, whether thev are a beer connoisseur or . 1 lover a local history. Rc, 1,Giojelli University of Cincimiati John S. Kessler and Donald B. Ball. North from tbe Mountains: A Folk History of tbe Carmel Melungeon Settlement.Higbland Countv,Obio. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2001. 220 pp. ISBN: 0865547033 paper), $ 19.95. r« he term " Melungeoli"possesses the power to trip up spell checkers and novice historians with equal impunity,and it is quite capable of Austering and confounding even professional scholars who know it well. What are academicians to make of this term and the people who have claimed it as selfidentifying ? A starting point would be to aCcept that American history,not to 1-nention ethnic identity,is far more complicated than the average textbook would have us believe. Melungeons likely represent the genetic and cultural survivals of longforgotten immigrants to colonial America from the Mediterranean world. Tossed into the early American crucible, these travelers mingled their genetic codes with northern Europeans, subSaharan Africans,and Native Americans. While Melungeons traditionally are associated with a fairly small section of central Appalachia located along the TennesseeVirginia state line, numerous outlying communities are closely connected to these core groups. One of the factarea Ivhites, soiiie nieiiibers ot the Carmel c(, mnititiit>lia ,e er en inade efforts to claim legal status as Native Aniericans. In actuality, Nlelungeon residents appear to have a limited local Native American ancestry but strong roots stretching back through several communities in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee to colonial Virginia and the Carolinas. Significantly, this community has continued k) evidence Melungeon folkways, thus enabling the authors to assemble an informative folk history. Senior author John S. Kessler,a native of Highland County, has firsthand knowledge of the Carmel settlement' s traditions, which he has gleaned from friends and kinfolk. Additionally,the authors have delved extensively into census records and other genealogical sources to trace surnime replication and probable kinship tieS from the Carmel community back to Appalachia. Kessler,though initially ati academic novice,has broadened his study of the socia] sciences during the years of research and writing culminating in this monograph. With coauthor Donald B. Ball, an archeologist working for the Army Corps ot Engineers in Louisville, WINTER 2004 71 BOOK REVIEWS Kentucky,he has turned an anthropologist's lens on his native community. The result is an ethnographic study that successfully bridges the gaps between myth,family history,and academic inquiry to reveal inore fully the complex ethnic and cultural heritage ot this and other Melungeon collimunities in the 0]1io Valley. J. Michael Rbytie Northern Kentucky Unit'ersity Andrew O'Toole. Branch Rickey in Pittsburgh:Baseball' s Trailblazing General Manager for tbe Pirates, 19501955 . Jefferson, North Care, lina: Mcfarland Co. Publishers, 2000. 213 pp. ISBN: 0786408391 ( paper), $ 29.95. 'Toole sets out to fill a gap in the literature on one of baseball's great innovators,Branch Rickey. While two full biographies on Rickey hive been published. as well as itiniinierible . 11ticles , there has been 110 sustained treatment of his five years as general manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates between Noveniber 1, 1950 . ind October 31, 1955. ()' Toole does indeed fill this gap,and, for the 111() st part, he does so admirably. He tells a rich tale covering Rickey' s relationship with Pirates owner John Galbreath; his interactions with various players such as Ralph Kiner,his scouts and newspapermen: and Rickey' s financial problems confronting tIle ing niateria] oil the nature of the general manager' s job iii the 1950s, and on the relationship between niajoi- leagize baseball and nlilic, r leagiles. Rickey is often credited with being the first to deve ](, p an extensive farm system to bolster the playing and financial fc, rtunes of smallmarket teams. He did this with the Cardinals in the 19205 and 1930s, and again with the largemarket Dodgers when he joined that team in 1942. It was when he worked for the Dodgers that Rickey integrated the ma...