High Mountains Rising: Appalachia in Time and Place ed. by Richard A. Straw, H. Tyler Blethen (review)

Book Reviews Richard A. Straw and H. Tyler Blethen, eds. Higb Mountains Rising:Appalacbia in Time and Place. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004. 240 pp. ISBN: 02520716X ( paper), $ 20.00. right down to the present importance of tourism and casinos. H. Tyler Blethen d() cuments the diversity of European immigrants along with involuntary immigrants, African Americans. He shows that English, ScotchIrish ,Irish and German immigrants all shared a desire for land and improved economic status; all participated in a mostly selfsufficient household economy but als() traded beef and other products with coastal areas. When possible they engaged in small businessessalt production, iron forges, timber cutting, etc. Iii short, they resemble the household economies of the eighteenth century elsewhere. John Inscoe provides a snapshot of African American life 11' t,/ ij*' *** 4-« in the mountains, destroying the myth that there were no people ' < * 7%$ 6* f of c(} lor or slaves in the mountain i South, or that if there were,they - 4-; UY' " 41- were better treated than in the AP* IA(' Ift* 1 4 TIM€ AND PLACC plantation South. Similar patterns« '»= 5 -" "== 3* can be found in Gordon McKin ney' s chapter on the Civil War and Reconstruction,in Ronald Lewis' s 444,# haI£ 6 , , 4 examination of industrialization, and in Paul Salstrom's account of 1*%„** * ilE*= it§* s the Great Depression in the mountains . All of these time periods and historical events did indeed have igb Mountains Risingis an anthologyofessays by major scholars of the Appalachian region covering a long time framefrom European contact with Native American populations to the twenty first century. In his introduction, editc, r Richard Straw sets the stage by relating his undergraduate experience when a professor informed him that Appalachia " has »» nohistory."( 1) Strawarguesthat 11 » 3 1 %* 0»*' recent scholarship does indeed demonstrate that Appalachia has a history and that history should be available to beginning students and nonscholars . This collection seeks to do just that by including essays by influential Appalachian scholars especially written for this work. Straw' s introduction also lays out the themes explored by the essays and ends by dealing with the issue of Appalachian exceptionalism . He seems to suggest that despite much recent research suggesting that in common some features peculiar to Appalachia, Appalachian history is intertwined with and reflec- but in the end the fundamental patterns of social, tive of Southern history and American history,there economic and political change remain the same as I . is still something unique about it. ( 5) those found in American history as whole. This claim is not readily born out by the many Another set of chaptersDavid Hsiung on " Steexcellent essays. C. Cliff() rd Boyd,Jr. insists that reotypes," Bill Malone on " Music," Michael Ann Native American culture, particularly Cherokee, Williams on " Folklife," Michael Montgomery on showed an evolutionary pattern similar to other " English Language," and Ted Olson on " Literanative peoples in other parts of the United States, ture"have as their theme the deconstruction of 74 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY stereotypes or myths developed by outsiders about mountain people. Hsiung argues somewhat uniquely that Appalachian stereotypes originated in conflicts between town dwelling Appalachians and country folk, but that outsiders also exaggerated stories to an extreme. In other essays, we discover that there is no uniquely Appalachian music, folk customs, language or literature. Even bluegrass, log cabins and the words " plumb"and " right smart" are not particular to Appalachia! (148) In fact, these cultural analyses suggest that Appalachia, like every other place in America, was divided by social class and race, and had the added misfortune of being rich in natural resources that modernizing capitalists from outside the region exploited with vigor and abandonnot that they did not have allies within the region, as shown in the final essay by Ronald Ellen As a result, much that we perceive today as " Appalachian"proves to be a construction by outsiders created either to justify exploitation,especially in the industrial era, or to romanticize mountaineers, as in the 1960s. None of this is new, of course, but the authors of High Mountains Rising have written new versions of their work aimed at appealing to newcomers to the field of Appalachian life and history,and they have done so successfully. Altina Walley University of Connecticut Jacqueline Jones Royster. Profiles of Obio Women,18032003 . Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003. 264 pp. ISBN: 8021415085 ( cloth), $ 39.95. hio'shistoryincludesanarrayofintriguing females with complex and serendipitous stories oftentimes overlooked because of research and publishing constraints. This volume ,produced collaboratively es en Ohio Bicentennial Legacy Project, is an effort to spur interest and help correct that deficiency . Profiles of Obio Women is an attractive volume that well commemorates the state' s recent bicentennial and introduces the reader to the varied contributions of numerous, fascinating female Ohioans from the past two hundred years. The lovely forward from First Lady Hope Taft is paired with an inspiring dedication to " untold numbers of Ohio women," making this book a nice keepsake for future generations . ( vi) Pro/ iles ably meets its dual purpose to " showcase leadership statewide and to depict a range of achievements demonstrating the multiple pathways by which women, typically unsung heroines, have shared their visions,time,and talents, often against incredible odds. ( xi) The volume is organized into seventeen sections representing a broad range of achievements that include business and finance, communications, community service, education, exploration and adventure, health care, law and government, literature, military service, music, public service, religion, science and technology, social activism,sports and athletics,stage and screen performance, and the visual arts. Each section includes a very brief,generalized introduction to the topic. While the introductions are inspirational and well written, they have not been grounded in the historical literature of Ohio. Choosing two hundred women from the multitude who have contributed to Ohio's development could not have been simple. The book' s introducSPRING 2005 75 ...