Rural communities / rural life Books
Johns Hopkins University Press All We Knew Was to Farm Rural Women in the
Book SynopsisThe material lives of rural upcountry women improved dramatically by midcentury-yet in becoming middle class, Walker concludes, the women found their experiences both broadened and circumscribed.Trade ReviewAn engaging study... For upcountry southern women, the years 1919-1941 were indicative of the economic, political, and social chaos existing throughout segregated America... Walker capably demonstrates how families were forced by the limitations of race and class to choose situations that provided little or no real opportunity, but she also brilliantly illustrates how some rural people were able to adapt to change. -- Valerie Grim Journal of American History Voices of ordinary women who experienced extraordinary changes resonate in Melissa Walker's incisive study of twentieth-century transformations of southern agricultural communities. -- Elizabeth D. Schafer H-SAWH, H-Net Reviews Melissa Walker has done an admirable job of mining oral interviews, TVA records, letters, diaries, and farming magazines to piece together the story of how women contributed to the family income... Walker deftly negotiates the intersection of race, class, and gender. -- Gaul Graham Journal of East Tennessee History Walker shows how women adapted to rapid change with courage, strength, creativity, and persistence... Walker's fine regional study will be useful to historians of women, the South, Appalachia, rural life, and labor issues. A valuable addition to the growing number of works on women in the early-twentieth-century South. -- Suzanne Marshall History: Reviews of New Books Historian Melissa Walker provides an account of changes in women's labor practices and economic activity in the upcountry South during the inter-war years... Readable, credible, and well-researched. -- Shaunna L. Scott Journal of Appalachian Studies The theme of the study is to show how the status of farm women changes from 1919-1941 in a period of economic crisis. Changing from a region of subsistence farming to one of commercial farming and interference by government action during the depression and New Deal years, women learned to cope... [Walker's] descriptions of rural ways and beliefs are true to form. -- Cline E. Hall South Carolina Historical Magazine Walker does a particularly good job of emphasizing the ambivalence that upcountry farm women felt about leaving the farms... All We Knew Was to Farm makes an extremely important contribution to rural literature by gendering the transformation of the upland South. -- Rebecca Sharpless Georgia Historical Quarterly Walker provides a much needed account of the South that should be of interest to all those who study the twentieth century. -- Kathleen Mapes Journal of Social History 2005Table of ContentsContents:List of Figures List of Tables AcknowledgementsIntroduction: "All We Knew Was to Farm" 1. Rural Life in the Upcountry South: The Scene in 1920 2. Making Do and Doing Without: Farm Women Cope with the Economic Crisis, 1920-1941 3. "Grandma Would Find Some Way to Make Some Money": Farm Women's Cash Incomes 4. Mixed Messages: Home Extension Work among Upcountry Farm Women in the 1920s and 1930s 5. Government Relocation and Upcountry Women 6. Rural Women and Industrialization 7. Farm Wives and Commercial Farming 8. "The Land of Do Without": The Changing Face of Sevier County, Tennessee, 1908-1940 Epilogue: The Persistence of Rural ValuesAbbreviations Notes Bibliographical Essay Index
£31.50
Beacon Press Dirt Road Revival
Book SynopsisThe Democratic Party left rural America behind. This urgent rallying cry shows how Democrats can win back and empower overlooked communities that have been pushing politics to the right—and why long-term progressive political power depends on it.Through 2 successful elections in rural red districts that few thought could be won by a Democrat, twentysomethings Maine state senator Chloe Maxmin (D-District 13) and campaign manager Canyon Woodward saw how the Democratic Party has focused for too long on the interests of elite leaders and big donors, forcing the party to abandon the concerns of rural America—jeopardizing climate justice, racial equity, economic justice, and more. Dirt Road Revival looks at how we got here and lays out a road map for progressive campaigns in rural America to build an inclusive, robust, grassroots politics that fights for equity and justice across our country. First, Maxmin and Woodward
£19.96
The University Press of Kentucky Engaging Appalachia
Book SynopsisVolume offering diverse perspectives and guidance for promoting social change through campus-community relationships.Table of ContentsIntroduction Town and Gown Collaborations in Southwest Virginia Post-Coal Communities Collaborating for Conservation Roots With Wings Bringing Back the Forest Wealth and Poverty in the Little Cities of Black Diamonds Documenting the Past to Sustain the Future Students Leading the Way to Social Change Breaking the Chains of Addiction through University, Nonprofit and Community Partnerships GIS Mapping of Legacy Oil and Gas Wells Appalachia Abroad Saving Appalachian Gardens and Stories Conclusion Epilogue Contributors and Editors Index
£34.20
The University Press of Kentucky Power and Place
Book SynopsisDrawing on interviews with more than 220 residents from ten communities in five Appalachian counties, Power and Place gives voice to rural citizens whose place at the table is far from assured with regard to critical energy, environmental, and infrastructure decisions.Table of ContentsThe Place of Power The Loss Using Place to Establish Identity Using Land to Make a Living and a Life Using Place to Create and Maintain Historical Continuity Using Place to Build and Maintain Living Community Using Place to Teach Culture's Ways Using Place to Confront Threats to the Environment and Culture The Culture Wars, Anthropology, and the Law Culture Wars Continued Cultural Conservation and Cultural Confrontations Culture War Strategies Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes References
£34.20
Georgetown University Press The Failure of National Rural Policy Institutions
Book SynopsisModern farm policy emerged in the United States in 1862, leading to an industrialized agriculture that made the farm sector collectively more successful even as many individual farmers failed. This title blends history, politics, and economics to show that federal government emphasis on farm productivity has failed to meet broader rural needs.Trade ReviewBrowne's criticisms of analytic knowledge provide a users' perspective on policy research that should be read by all those wishing to engage policymakiers with their analytical findings... The book stands as an important case study of the interaction of interests and institutions in national policymaking and is important reading for the rural policy community. Journal of Regional ScienceTable of ContentsPreface 1. A Troubled Rural Society: Misperceptions of Farming 2. Other Social Misperceptions that Miss Rural Problems 3. An Institutional Perspective 4. Rural Policy as Farm Policy 5. The Agragrian Myth as Fundamentalist Vision 6. Collective versus Selective Benefits and Farm Interests 7. Basic Rural Problems Gain Attention-Almost 8. Concentrated but Fragmented Public Institutions 9. The Resulting Fragmentation of Policy 10. The Impossible Task of Rural Advocacy 11. The Rural Poverty Mess 12. Understanding Congressional Anomalies 13. The Environmental Policy Contrast 14. A Final Explanation Notes Index
£48.00
History Press Historic Tales of Highlands
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£18.69
Basic Books The Overlooked Americans: The Resilience of Our
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£25.60
NewSouth, Incorporated My Little Town: A Pilgrim's Portrait of a
Book SynopsisMy Little Town turns the Yankee-comes-to-Dixie literary genre outside in, examining Marion, Alabama, through the eyes of someone who should never have been living there and yet found himself there for more than a decade. With a keen appreciation of its peculiarly Southern tableau, the book lovingly scrutinizes an Alabama village short chapter by short chapter, accompanied by photographer Jerry Siegel's captivating work from the Black Belt. Funeral visitations, poisoned soup luncheons, Pilgrimage hosting, supper clubs, family feuds, Obama Day parades, politics, Jews, and chicken salad recipes are all treated with a voice of singular precision and affection. Simultaneously author David Tipmore couples this fresh view of Southern small-town life with his own narrative of a worldly urban nomad who hopes to find a home in one of the most isolated areas of the United States, peculiarly defined by its racial history and regional mores. By conflating the two stories, My Little Town challenges the reader as much as the author, raising serious questions about our ability as Americans to transcend our regional identities and cultural complexities.
£21.80
Chelsea Green Publishing Co Going Over Home: A Search for Rural Justice in an
Book SynopsisBooklist Editors’ Choice “Best Books of 2019” An intimate portrait of the joys and hardships of rural life, as one man searches for community, equality, and tradition in Appalachia Charles D. Thompson, Jr. was born in southwestern Virginia into an extended family of small farmers. Yet as he came of age he witnessed the demise of every farm in his family. Over the course of his own life of farming, rural education, organizing, and activism, the stories of his home place have been his constant inspiration, helping him identify with the losses of others and to fight against injustices. In Going Over Home, Thompson shares revelations and reflections, from cattle auctions with his grandfather to community gardens in the coal camps of eastern Kentucky, racial disparities of white and Black landownership in the South to recent work with migrant farm workers from Latin America. In this heartfelt first-person narrative, Thompson unpacks our country’s agricultural myths and addresses the history of racism and wealth inequality and how they have come to bear on our nation’s rural places and their people.Trade ReviewBooklist, Starred Review— "This book deserves a place next to the writings of Wendell Berry, Henry David Thoreau, and Michael Pollan."“This book isn’t just the story of one person’s lifelong fight for justice for family farmers and rural communities. Going Over Home is a call that inspires the reader to stand shoulder to shoulder with family farmers in their daily struggle. It puts into words why all of us at Farm Aid believe in family farmers and rural America, and why their survival matters to all of us—no matter where we live.”—Willie Nelson, president, Farm Aid“Going Over Home bears eloquent witness to Charlie Thompson’s path toward a homegrown revolution of the heart, first illuminated by listening to many voices, then achieved by acting in solidarity with those who struggle for equality and inclusion along the wailing walls that America is building between itself and its own heart. Thompson’s exemplary memoir confronts our separate and unequal pasts and gives us a heartfelt but clear-eyed narrative of American agricultural life and a bridge toward wholeness in a broken time.”—Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, codirector of the Poor People’s Campaign; coauthor of The Third Reconstruction“Told through moving stories of kinship and solidarity, Going Over Home brings much needed dimension and heart to our conversations about rural life and shows the strength of our bonds when love of place is animated by justice.”—Elizabeth Catte, author of What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia“Charles D. Thompson, Jr.’s memoir isn’t just a personal snapshot of some of the most important North American agrarian movements and thinkers. It’s the history of a grateful rural educator’s education written with a deep mix of generosity, curiosity, and wit, and it deserves to be read widely.”—Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved
£13.29
Erewhon Books The Stone Road
Book SynopsisWinner of the Aurealis Award for Best Horror NovelFinalist for the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy NovelFinalist for the Australian Shadow Awards for Best NovelWith the lyrical cadence of The Last Unicorn and intense imagery of A Wizard of Earthsea, The Stone Road is a timeless story of hope, belonging, and growing into your power. Award-winning Australian author Trent Jamieson presents a haunting rural fantasy where the dead speak beneath your feet and twisted monsters hunger for their lost humanity.On the day Jean was born, the dead howled. A thin scratch of black smoke began to rise behind the hills west of town: Furnace had been lit, and soon its siren call began to draw the people of Casement Rise to it, never to return. Casement Rise is a dusty town at the end of days, a harsh world of grit and arcane dangers. While Jean’s stern, overprotective Nan has always kept Casement Rise safe from monsters, she may have waited too long to teach Jean how to face them on her own. On Jean’s twelfth birthday, a mysterious graceful man appears, an ethereal and terrifying being tied to her family’s secrets.Now, Nan must rush Jean’s education in monsters, magic, and the breaking of the world in ages past. If Jean is to combat the graceful man and finally understand the ancient evil that powers Furnace, she will have to embrace her legacy, endure her Nan’s lessons, and learn all she can—before Furnace burns down her world and everyone in it.Trade Review“A coming-of-age story with a dreamlike quality. . . . Those who appreciate fantasy that leans toward fable will gladly follow along on Jean’s journey.” —Booklist“The Stone Road is lovely, hypnotic. I want to drink this book.” —H. A. Clarke, author of The Scapegracers“Trent Jamieson’s The Stone Road is a heart wrapped in thorns. Its world, even as it unpicks itself at the seams, is shot through with bright mysteries. And the novel, like its heroine, holds dear a loving, quarrelling community, even as it understands that towns—like time and people—slip away like dust. The Stone Road is a cycle of mysteries, an invocation of kindness amidst decay, a promise to the living, and blessing for the dead.” —Kathleen Jennings, author of Flyaway“The Stone Road . . . pulls you in and makes you linger over every page. I don’t know which to praise first—the worldbuilding, which had a depth that made it feel neverending; the prose, which made me want to underline whole passages; or the characters. . . . Perfect for fans of classics like The Last Unicorn (which is to say, anyone who likes good books). I know it’s something I’ll be recommending for years to come.” —Katherine Nazzaro, Manager of Porter Square Books: Boston Edition“Trent Jamieson is . . . a significant talent, writing beautifully crafted tales that often have a baroque sensibility and resonate on an emotional level.” —Terra Incognita
£19.79
Astra Publishing House The Artisans: The Legacy of the Ancestors of Shen
Book SynopsisEvoking Studs Terkel, Shen Fuyu delivers a rollicking deep dive into working life in a small village in rural China, tracing the last 100 years of history. Born in Shen Village in Southeast China, Shen Fuyu grew up in a family of farmers. Years later, Shen, now a writer, returned to his hometown to capture the village's rich history in the face of industrialization. Through his own childhood memories and those of his ancestors, Shen resurrects the working life of Shen Village through interlinked stories of fifteen artisans as their lives intersect over the course of a century. While Shen's view of his hometown and his heritage is tinged with nostalgia, he does not romanticize it. Nor does he sugarcoat the backbreaking difficulty of life in rural China, but he still captures its small satisfactions and joys of loving one's work with a great deal of care. In an acerbic, earthy and unsparing style that swings from poignancy to comedy, sometimes within a single paragraph, Shen evokes the spirits of these workers--a bamboo-weaver and his beloved bull, a carpenter's magical saw, the deserter who became the village lantern-maker and a rebellious woman who beats up her own kidnapper. A reflection on the vicissitudes of small-town life during the epic shift from agricultural to industrial civilization, The Artisans vividly details the hardships, friendships and communal mythmaking of a disappearing community.Trade Review"[Shen Fuyu's] prose is steeped in contagious nostalgia, and he employs the universal language of emigration and exile, writing, 'I am now an orphan, lost in the big city.'"—Farah Abdessamad, The Atlantic "Beautifully written, with an almost mythic tone, each of these vignettes captures a piece of village life and custom during a tumultuous century in Chinese history." —Booklist "A Marcel Pagnol of provincial China in a beautifully accessible translation."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
£21.25
University Press of Kentucky Toward Just Transitions
£45.00
Brepols N.V. Peasants and Their Fields: The Rationale of
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£102.42
Dietrich Reimer Vertreibung Und Widerstand Im Sudanesischen
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£54.15
Austrian Academy of Sciences Press New Development in the Rural Spaces of Central
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£22.00
Universitatsverlag Winter Rural America
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£77.90
Silkworm Books / Trasvin Publications LP Cashing In across the Golden Triangle: Thailand's
Book SynopsisHistorically, the Golden Triangle on the Mekong River has been a strategic yet largely impoverished crossroads between Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and southern China. In the latter half of the 20th century, it was known as one of the world's key opium-producing regions. The new transnational "economic corridors" connecting northern Thailand and southwestern China via key border towns in Myanmar and Laos have greatly increased the volume of trade and transshipment in the region. Logistical improvements via the highways and ports have transformed entire towns and districts in Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand, bringing with them an influx of Chinese investment and tourism, and other population movements. The transformation of the economy of the Golden Triangle is ongoing and relatively uncharted. There is evidence of unequal benefits to the countries involved. Combining official data, observations, and interviews with a wide range of participants in this new border economy, this book provides an important and unique perspective on the impact of the new economic linkages in the region.Trade Review"The corner of the region known as the Golden Triangle remains bound to well-worn images of lawless Cold War-era drug trafficking, rather than evoking images of the complex and varied lives of the region's inhabitants today. This timely and detailed study provides an important corrective to static and dated images of Northern Thailand, Burma, and Laos. Like other places in the world, the Golden Triangle is in the process of being deeply transformed, and Cashing In ably tracks many of the changes." Jim Glassman, University of British Columbia "This slim volume dealing with Thailand's burgeoning northern trade with China, Laos and Myanmar combines a prodigious amount of fairly recent information on the changing nature and scope of this trade with an analysis of the political and economic forces driving these changes." - Asian Affairs, February 2013
£21.99
