The Georgia Peach: Culture, Agriculture, and Environment in the American South by William Thomas Okie (review)

"Would you care for a Georgia peach?" (p. 1). This is the oft-repeated question that William Thomas Okie poses in The Georgia Peach: Culture, Agriculture, and Environment in the American South, an agricultural history interspersed with personal reflections. Okie's goal is simple, to deduce why the peach has become associated with Georgia when it has never been the state's largest crop. His answer: timing. The peach gained notice "at a moment when the South was desperate for an improved reputation—a new face" (p. 5). It not only provided revenue but also beautified the landscape, spawned festivals that aided tourism and fueled local identity, and seemed reminiscent, at least to large growers, of the plantation.

The various chapters flow smoothly as Okie has a talented way of providing context while presenting absorbing descriptions of individuals. In chapter 1 he traces the history of the peach from the colonial age to modern times and pays close attention to its role in the antebellum era. He gives a stellar review of horticultural history, arguing that the two primary concepts were culture and taste or the "way of thinking about and perceiving more precisely the biological relationships we all have" (p. 21). Belgian immigrant Prosper Jules Alphonse Berckmans, the founder of the Georgia State Horticultural Society, is the primary subject of chapter 2. The life of Georgia native Samuel Henry Rumph is the focus of chapter 3. Okie sees Rumph's life as an "allegory for the rise of the New South" because Rumph realized that one did not have to forsake rurality and tradition in order to embrace industrialization and commercialism (p. 64). In chapter 4, Okie delves into the life of John Howard Hale, a Yankee whom he credits with creating the Georgia peach industry.

The next three chapters describe the mounting difficulties the peach industry encountered as it matured. In chapter 5 Okie shows that as the peach became a popular crop, overproduction, pests, and weather contributed to striking price fluctuations and a growing need for funding, which was scarce. In an attempt to control prices, many growers joined cooperatives, but standardization was slow. The next chapter mainly discusses Henry Alexander Hunt Jr., Otis Samuel O'Neal, and the Fort Valley High and Industrial School and their vision of farming as the future of black southerners. In chapter 7 Okie describes how black migration left peach growers dependent on "neighbor labor," prisoners of war, immigrants, children, and, later, Mexican guest workers (p. 182).

This unconventional work has many attributes and makes a solid contribution to southern agricultural history. Okie's analysis of black people's roles in peach history is utterly fascinating and a constant presence. Many of his quotations are rather astute, sometimes cute, and only occasionally corny. The peach-themed poems and songs scattered throughout the book are entertaining. While the author emphasizes that "this is not a commodity study," it would nevertheless have been helpful to include some historiography on similar works (p. 2). At times, the writing is too philosophical and reflective, coming off as a mix between a historical monograph and a Bill Bryson travelogue, but perhaps that was the author's intent. To paraphrase Okie, who closed a chapter with, "don't just eat the cobbler at the Peach Festival. Enjoy it" (p. 218), don't just read this book. Devour it.