Although southern Appalachia is popularly seen as a purely white enclave, blacks have lived in the region from early times. Some hollows and coal camps are in fact almost exclusively black settlements. The selected readings in this new book offer the first comprehensive presentation of the black experience in Appalachia. Organized topically, the selections deal with the early history of blacks in the region, with studies of the black communities, with relations between blacks and whites, with blacks in coal mining, and with political issues. Also included are a section on oral accounts of black experiences and an analysis of black Appalachian demography. The contributors range from Carter Woodson and W. E. B. Du Bois to more recent scholars such as Theda Perdue and David A. Corbin. An introduction by the editors provides an overall context for the selections. Blacks in Appalachia focuses needed attention on a neglected area of Appalachian studies. It will be a valuable resource for students of Appalachia and of black history.
Before 1910 the American chestnut was one of the most common trees in the eastern United States. Although historical evidence suggests the natural distribution of the American chestnut extended across more than four hundred thousand square miles of territory—an area stretching from eastern Maine to southeast Louisiana—stands of the trees could also be found in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington State, and Oregon. An important natural resource, chestnut wood was preferred for woodworking, fencing, and building construction, as it was rot resistant and straight grained. The hearty and delicious nuts also fed wildlife, people, and livestock. Ironically, the tree that most piqued the emotions of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Americans has virtually disappeared from the eastern United States. After a blight fungus was introduced into the United States during the late nineteenth century, the American chestnut became functionally extinct. Although the virtual eradication of the species caused one of the greatest ecological catastrophes since the last ice age, considerable folklore about the American chestnut remains. Some of the tree’s history dates to the very founding of our country, making the story of the American chestnut an integral part of American cultural and environmental history. The American Chestnut tells the story of the American chestnut from Native American prehistory through the Civil War and the Great Depression. Davis documents the tree’s impact on nineteenth-and early twentieth-century American life, including the decorative and culinary arts. While he pays much attention to the importation of chestnut blight and the tree’s decline as a dominant species, the author also evaluates efforts to restore the American chestnut to its former place in the eastern deciduous forest, including modern attempts to genetically modify the species.
The history of modern American literature is inextricably tied to the history of the literary magazine. Conversely, in the individual histories of these magazines can be gleaned highlights of literary activity and insights on the writers and editors in the forefront. The literary magazines of the twentieth century, most of them known as littles because of small budgets and circulation and short lives, number in the thousands. Some, like the venerable New Yorker, have enjoyed wide circulation for well over half a century; others, like The Fugitive, published in Nashville, Tennessee, in the early 1920s, were regional and/or experimental and short-lived. Of these thousands, editor Edward E. Chielens has selected seventy-six of the most significant for description and analysis in individual historical essays. An additional one hundred magazines are briefly profiled in an appendix. Forty-three scholars and writers contributed to this volume. Following the pattern established in Chielens's earlier complementary volume, American Literary Magazines: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, the magazine essays also provide appended data on information sources and publishing history. The volume introduction discusses the characteristics of different types of literary magazines in the twentieth century and their sponsoring organizations or individuals as well as the influence on their development of leading literary figures such as Ezra Pound and H. L. Mencken. This discussion is bolstered by a chronological appendix to the volume presenting highlights in the history of literary magazines in the perspective of events in literary history. An additional appendix provides a directory of major collections of literary magazines in the United States and Canada with descriptions of their holdings.
Fort Niagara is located twelve miles downriver from the world-renowned Niagara Falls, yet few visitors to either site know this was once Iroquois territory and claimed by France. This volume summarizes the fascinating span of North American history when New France was established during the sixteenth century in present-day Canada, explored, and expanded to the Niagara River — a strategic water and portage route connected to the Great Lakes. Chronologically the authors dramatically trace how the Iroquois gained the Niagara River, and how they kept this lucrative trade route for themselves long after the French became established fur traders in the Great Lakes. The Iroquois continued to control the Niagara River as the French built the short-lived Forts Conti (1669), Denonville (1687/1688), and finally Fort Niagara (1726-1759). Fort Niagara: The Key to the Inland Oceans and the French Movement to Dominate North America incorporates actions and political changes elsewhere that influenced the French and Iroquois at Niagara, especially during the French and Indian War, which ended the French Occupation of Fort Niagara and set the stage for the Iroquois to lose their long-held Niagara River territory.
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