The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Folklife (review)

the alabama review 232 (p. 3). An epilogue traces the continuing debate over the status of American Indian nations into the last decade of the twentieth century. It is debatable whether the judiciary alone could have arrested Indian removal and made room for Indian nations within “an intriguing American federalism,” as Garrison speculates they might have (p. 12). But there is no doubt that southern judges had a lasting retrograde effect on Indian citizenship, one that reached throughout the United States. As Garrison shows, most states with sizable Indian populations copied Georgia in passing laws that undermined Indian autonomy, sometimes citing the Tassels, Caldwell, and Forman cases. In recalling our attention to these overlooked decisions and the ideology they emerged from, Garrison has given us an indispensable work of American history. Robert P. Collins Auburn University The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Folklife. Edited by Glenn Hinson and William Ferris. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009. xviii, 402 pp. $45.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-8078-3346-9. $22.95 (paper ). ISBN 978-0-8078-5989-6. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture purports to answer historian C. Vann Woodward’s suggestion to revise or supplement the original, and in the future, “to keep up with ongoing scholarship.” The original encyclopedia comprised a single volume weighing in at some eight pounds, containing twenty-four distinct subject areas such as Agriculture, Black Life, Environment, Geography, Language, Literature, Music, Law and Politics, Urbanization, and Violence. The reconstituted version equates to a set, with these topical sections garnering their own publication. A shift in some titles speaks to one revisionist change. For instance, the Mythic South became Myth, Manners, and Memory. A separate past entry within the section History and Manners, Foodways, acquired its own book. The volume under review here, Folklife, opens with an elaborate , rhetorical twenty-four-page definition. Distinguishing Folklife from the Folklore label in the process, editor Glenn Hinson explains: “It is a word that lives largely in the rarefied world of academic study and in the productions and discussions of folklorists” (p. 5). Ultimately this interpretive overview may prove perfunctory, except to folklorists. In keeping with the text’s primary function, typical users will probably bypass the broader analysis to search immediately for the desired informational content. July 2011 233 In the General Introduction Charles Reagan Wilson establishes the ground rules concerning essays, whether by original authors, new contributors , or newly commissioned. To be expected, given the ambitious nature of such an enterprise, each article privileges the personal, subjective , and creative styles of the encyclopedia writer. Therefore, some comparative analysis appears to be one viable approach toward assessing such an enormous undertaking. For example, the first three entries—Aesthetic , African American; Aesthetic, Historically White; and Basketmaking— emerge relatively unchanged. These are basically verbatim essays by luminaries in the field: John Vlach, Simon Bronner, and Howard W. Marshall, respectively. Speaking of aesthetics—although encyclopedias are rarely judged on this basis—accessibility remains a prime emphasis. Many entries are, indeed, encyclopedic, catering to the original volume’s anticipated audience comprising “students and general readers.” With the creation of this more portable set, by design, the stated intention is to seek “wider audiences,” including the textbook market (p. xiv). Another recognizable revision pertains to the usage of new “racial designations.” Offering a preliminary caveat, A Note on Terms expresses the necessity for repositioning “white,” “black,” and “Indian.” Instead, it proclaims: “In entry titles, in turn, we use the terms ‘African American,’ ‘American Indian,’ and ‘Historically White’” (p. 25). The inclination, however, does not consistently bear out. Some quibbling is an inherent part of reviewing encyclopedia projects . In the effort to democratize the text by “outsourcing” topics to aficionados beyond the walls of academe and its horde of graduate students , some entries are less factually accurate than others. On these occasions the reason tends to be an effort to provide diversity, which leads to an untenable, blanket statement to cover the deficiency. Of course readers will differ on what is a genuine omission; yet not including the Juneteenth celebration constitutes a real gap. Lack of space plagues this and most reference works. Folklife includes some sixty columned additional categories...