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Freedom's Main Line: The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides
In 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and other civil rights groups began organizing the Freedom Rides. The Freedom Riders were volunteers of different backgrounds who travelled on buses throughout the American South to help enforce the Supreme Court ruling that had declared racial segregation on public transportation illegal. This book shows how the Freedom Rides were crucial in raising awareness among decision makers and in bringing the realities of racial segregation into American homes through national media coverage.
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Songs of Life and Grace: A Memoir
On a muggy, late August afternoon in 1936, somewhere along the banks of Greasy Creek, Life found Grace—walking the dusty mile between work and home in a brand new pair of leather kitten-heeled pumps, blond curls bouncing in the sun. Two weeks later, Lifie Jay Preston and Grace Mollette married, a union that lasted until their deaths fifty-eight years later. There was something about them, their daughter Linda would discover, a kind of radiance and love of living that would mark them in the memories of every person they encountered—a song that resonates years after their passing.
This book is ...Read More
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Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945
Appalachia has played a complex and often contradictory role in the unfolding of American history. Created by urban journalists in the years following the Civil War, the idea of Appalachia provided a counterpoint to emerging definitions of progress. Early-twentieth-century critics of modernity saw the region as a remnant of frontier life, a reflection of simpler times that should be preserved and protected. However, supporters of development and of the growth of material production, consumption, and technology decried what they perceived as the isolation and backwardness of the place and sought to “uplift” the mountain people through education and industrialization. This ...Read More
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General William E. DePuy: Preparing the Army for Modern War
Considered one of most influential U.S. military officers of the twentieth century, William E. DePuy (1919–1992) developed the education and training program that regenerated the U.S. Army after the Vietnam War. This book draws from sources such as transcripts and letters in DePuy's personal papers, interviews with those who knew him best, and secondary literature to trace DePuy's life—from child to decorated officer to commander of Training and Doctrine Command.
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Learning Native Wisdom: What Traditional Cultures Teach Us about Subsistence, Sustainability, and Spirituality
Many native North American cultures have origins that predate Confucius, who lived 500 years before the birth of Christ. For generations the people of these traditions have thrived under conditions that many view as harsh, if not hostile. Through their close association with nature, members of native communities have created complex systems for cooperating with one another and living within their environments. This book explains how to nurture a society by closely observing the traditions of various native cultures. It explores the need to live sustainably, in harmony with the land, in order to preserve our cultures, communities, and humankind ...Read More
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Becoming King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Making of a National Leader
Without question, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the face of the civil rights revolution that reshaped the social and political landscape of the United States. Although many biographers and historians have examined Dr. King's activism, few have recognized the pivotal role that the people of Montgomery, Alabama, played in preparing him for leadership. King arrived in Montgomery as a virtually unknown doctoral student, but his activities there—from organizing the Montgomery bus boycott to building relationships with local activists such as Rufus Lewis, E. D. Nixon, and Virginia Durr—established him as the movement's most visible leader. This book illustrates how ...Read More
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Reformers to Radicals: The Appalachian Volunteers and the War on Poverty
The Appalachian Volunteers formed in the early 1960s, determined to eliminate poverty through education and vocational training and to improve schools and homes in the mountainous regions of the south-eastern United States. This book illustrates how the activists ultimately failed, mainly because they were indecisive about the fundamental nature of their mission. The AVs, many of them college students, were also distracted by causes such as civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam War. Despite some progress, the organization finally lost the support of the national government and, more important, of many Appalachian people, setbacks from which it never recovered.
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A Concise History of Kentucky
To most people, the word “Kentucky” is likely to inspire thoughts of Derby Day, burley tobacco fields, feuding Appalachian families, coal mines, and Colonel Sanders' famous fried chicken. There is much more, however, to the Bluegrass State's rich but often unexplored history than mint juleps and the Hatfields and McCoys. This book introduces a captivating story that spans 12,000 years of Kentucky lives, from Native Americans to astronauts. All facets of Kentucky history are explored—geography, government, social structure, culture, education, and the economy—recounting unique historic events such as the deadly frontier wars, the assassination of a governor, and the birth ...Read More
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Taking the Town: Collegiate and Community Culture in the Bluegrass, 1880-1917
This book explores culture and intellectual life in Lexington, Kentucky, at the turn of the twentieth century. Drawing on local newspapers and on the work of historians and other writers, it reveals Lexington to be a city of contradictions: known as a cultural “Athens of the West,” it also struggled with the poverty, ignorance, and bigotry characteristic of southern communities after the Civil War. The book examines the contributions to local culture made by the literary and dramatic clubs prevalent on the city's college campuses. It gives an account of turn-of-the-century southern intellectual life thriving within an environment of considerable ...Read More
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Harlan Miners Speak: Report on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields
The Dreiser Committee, including writers Theodore Dreiser, John Dos Passos, and Sherwood Anderson, investigated the desperate situation of striking Kentucky miners in November 1931. When the Communist-led National Miners Union competed against the more conservative United Mine Workers of America for greater union membership, class resentment turned to warfare. Harlan Miners Speak, originally published in 1932, is an invaluable record that illustrates the living and working conditions of the miners during the 1930s. This edition of Harlan Miners Speak, with a new introduction by noted historian John C. Hennen, offers readers an in-depth look at a pivotal crisis in the ...Read More
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