NEW!  Video Book Reviews by Kathy Campbell, ETSU 

Burton, Thomas. Beech Mountain Man: The memoirs of Rhonda Lee Hicks. University of Tennessee Press, 2009

Roberts, W. The Serpent and the Hummingbird. Blacksburg, Va: Fantastic Books, 2009.

Traditional Reviews

Allen, R. R. (2010). A History of Theatres in Knoxville, Tennessee 1872-1982.

Barton, R. (2010). Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in Film.

Cowser, Jr., B. (2006). Scorekeeping: Essays From Home.

Dollar, K. T., Whiteaker, L.H., and Dickinson, W.C. (2009). Sister States, Enemy States; The Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Duck, L.A. (2006). The Nation’s Region: Southern Modernism, Segregation and U.S. Nationalism.

Elliott, S.D. (2010). Isham G. Harris of Tennessee.

Fleming, C.G. (2009). Yes We Did? From King’s Dream to Obama’s Promise. 

Frick-Ruppert, J. (2010). Mountain Nature: A Seasonal Natural History of the Southern Appalachians.  

Hinson, G. and Ferris, W. (Eds.) (2009). The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (Vol. 14 Folklife).

Howard, F.T.  (2010). Page From a Tennessee Journal.

Huber, P.  (2008). Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South. 

Jabbour, A. and Jabbour, K.S. (2010). Decoration Day in the Mountains:  Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians. 

Luce, D. C. (2009). Reading the World: Cormac McCarthy’s Tennessee Period.

McDonough, J. L.  (2009). The Wars of Myron King:  A B-17 Pilot Faces WWII and U.S.-Soviet Intrigue. 

Noe, K. W. (2010). Reluctant Rebels : the Confederates Who Joined the Army after 1861.

Patton, L. (2010). Whistlin’ Dixie in a Nor’easter.

Phillips, J. (2007). Diehard Rebels: The Confederate Culture of Invincibility.

Pierce, D. S. (2010).  Real NASCAR : White Lightnin’, Red Clay and Big Bill France.

Allen, Ronald R. (2010). A History of Theatres In Knoxville, Tennessee 1872-1982. Knoxville, TN: self-published. 88 pages.

Allen’s love for his hometown is evident, since this is his 16th book about Knoxville. In fact, the most enjoyable section of the text is his preface, explaining his scholarly and anecdotal research of live show and movie theatres, covering the years between 1872 and 1982. Unfortunately, his genuine apology for any inaccuracies does not cover his lack of editorial structure or dearth of traditional directory style.

In the majority of pages, he lists theatres in a chronological order of their opening, including in these entries, shows advertised in the contemporary newspapers of the time, as well as any significant event in the theatre’s existence, such as rebuilding projects or rechristening ceremonies.  Beginning in the section which features the 1960’s, general comments about theatres and practices of the remaining three decades appear. These factoids, distinguished only by spacing and italics, come as a surprise to the reader and would have been invisible to any researcher not scanning straight through the text.  Post-1982, he tacks on an alphabetical list of entertainment spaces, which hosted theatrical or film premieres, but were not technically theatre businesses, such as churches and community centers. Without an index or standardized bibliography of sources, it is difficult to imagine a scholar using this resource easily. 

The illustrations of photographs or advertisements included with most entries are very interesting and informative, but they too are not indexed and only cited in the vaguest way in the back of the book.

The author confesses that this publication was rushed, so perhaps a second draft with corrected repetitive and contradictory phrases; entire text listed alphabetically with cross-references identifying connections between a single building’s change of management; and a standardized structure would transform this book into a useful source for an academic library or a special collection focusing on the history, film,  or theatre production in East Tennessee. In another approach, the author may choose to continue the personal style of the Preface and tell the entire story of Knoxville theatres adding neighborhood tales from those citizens who remember and thus transform this book into a type of oral history project, with scholarly newspaper research adding academic vitality to the presentation. Suffice to say, in its present form, the book has much to be lacking.

Christi Underdown-DuBois, Asst. Cataloger, Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University

Barton, Ruth. (2010). Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in Film. Screen Classics. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press. 281 pages. . ISBN: 9780813126043.

In the book Hedy Lamarr : The Most Beautiful Woman in Film, Ruth Barton chronicles the life and times of this actress because she feels that Lamarr has not received the attention that other female movie stars from the Golden Age of film have received.  She also wanted to compare how Hedy’s movie star image affected her personal life. Barton is a lecturer in Film Studies at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

Born Hedwig Kiesler in Vienna, Austria in 1914, Lamarr gained notoriety near the beginning of her film career from her role in the film Ecstasy. The part that she played in this film would haunt her for the rest of her life due to her brief nude scenes and erotic imagery within the film. Later, she received her start in American cinema when she traveled on a ship to America from Europe where the MGM studio boss, Louis B. Mayer, gave her an acting contract. During the transatlantic voyage, Mayer and others debated what her stage name should be and settled on Hedy Lamarr.  She eventually starred in such blockbuster films such as Samson and Delilah, usually gaining more notice for her good looks than for her talent. 

Barton describes much more than just Lamarr’s film career.  Lamarr’s work on her Secret Communication System resulted in a co-patent of a technological device that would have aided radio control of torpedoes during World War II. Later in life, she became known for her reclusiveness, lawsuits, series of failed marriages, and shoplifting charges.

Although Barton touches on many of positive aspects of Lamarr’s life, she never fails to mention that Lamarr may have had a problem with telling the truth or with recalling how certain events really happened. Barton continually compares Lamarr’s autobiography to other sources to see if she can reconcile Lamarr’s account of her life with other documents. She uses both primary and secondary sources, including archival documents from the University of Southern California Cinema-Television Library.

The back matter of the book includes Lamarr’s family tree, a filmography, and an extensive index. There are a few black and white photographs also included in this book.

Barton has written a balanced biography of a complex woman who had both beauty and intelligence. This book would be suitable for all libraries that have a demand for biographies of movie stars from the Golden Age. Before making a purchasing decision, be aware that another biography of Hedy Lamarr is forthcoming under the title Beautiful : The Life of Hedy Lamarr [from Thomas Dunne September 28, 2010].

Maya Berry, Acquisitions/Public Services Librarian, Plough Library, Christian Brothers University

Cowser, Jr., Bob. Scorekeeping: Essays From Home. Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press, 2006. 109 pages. ISBN: 9781570036538.

Scorekeeping shares the trials and tribulations that many individuals encounter from ones formative years to maturity.  The author states that “We live two lives: one restless in our bodies and one beyond that, which saves us.” (Scorekeeping, pp. 4). This statement is applicable to most, if not all who have and will read Scorekeeping: Essays From Home.

Cowser weaves a picturesque, albeit a sometimes grey, view of Martin, Tennessee, where he spent the majority of his formative years.  His perspective is shared in short essays of particularly monumental episodes that the author writes in such a way that readers are easily and happily pulled into the scene as the author experiences it.

The author tells of his family’s move from East Haven, Connecticut to Martin, Tennessee in 1970, and how four months after the Cowser family’s arrival, Martin was named by Esquire magazine as one of nine happy towns left in America; a fact that  Martin still proudly boasts of today.  He waxes poetic about favorite haunts he frequented as a child in Martin; The Ticklebone Bar-B-Q, Pacer Pete’s Puttin’ Place, Jo’s Antique Mall and Hairstyling Mart and the musty Varsity Theater.

His anecdotes include tales of elementary school, roughhousing with classmates, being a talkative student, long summer afternoon’s bike riding with friends, finding a fish in an old fountain, receiving his high school diploma and beginning life, far away from Martin, Tennessee at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He also shares his conflicted feelings associated with returning for his ten-year high school reunion, which he chose to attend, but regretted doing so.

The  author chronicled a strong and lifelong mentorship and friendship with the English Departments director of advising while at Loyola.  From Loyola, the author headed to Lincoln, Nebraska, ultimately settling into a professorship in northern New York where he and his family currently reside, and where he is an Associate Professor of English at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY.

Cowser speaks fondly of his parents and family times shared together.  As with most individuals, he experienced not only triumphs but also tragedies; his brother Jimmy lost a best friend to suicide; a classmate was abducted, molested and murdered; a close friend from high school was accused of murder, his first marriage did not endure, and one of his favorite uncles died of an AIDS-related illness.

The author’s voice is loud and clear and his talent for engaging the reader and placing him in the episodic tale of each essay is what makes Scorekeeping:  Essays From Home a book that is recommended for public and academic libraries in Tennessee and for anyone who harbors some nostalgia for his or her hometown and the memorable encounters from times long ago.

Karen M. Swoopes, Administrative Assistant, Peabody Library, Vanderbilt University

Dollar, K. T., Whiteaker, L.H., and Dickinson, W.C. (Eds.) (2009). Sister States, Enemy States; The Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee.  Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. 402 pages.  ISBN 0813125413.

This book discusses the relationship between Tennessee and Kentucky, the fifteenth and sixteenth states to enter the Union, respectively and how their people, both yeomen and gentry, reacted to the start of the Civil War. Kentucky remained within the Union (although becoming an ‘armed neutral camp’) while Tennessee seceded with her sister states.  The editors chose and compiled a series of articles revealing the struggles, both internal and external, experienced by all parties concerned and ultimately, how these struggles changed the course of the war; both within these crucial states and for the nation as a whole.

The editors (Kent Dollar, Ph.D., Larry Whiteaker, Ph.D., and Calvin Dickinson, Ph.D.) compiled a ‘Who’s Who’ of Civil War authors and scholars –Robert Tracy McKenzie, Brian D. McKnight, and Kenneth Noe, for example – whose previous writings complemented the chapters these three individuals assembled. The point of view presented in these chapters are fair, balanced, and impartial--considering that some of the authors are from the Southeast region of the United States and even natives of the areas in which the chapters take place.

Having studied the Civil War in Tennessee and Kentucky for years--especially in the Middle Tennessee and South-Central Kentucky areas--and, having read several of the books utilized as reference sources for these chapters, has resulted in a level of familiarity with the geographic areas, individuals, and communities written about in this book. The authors are accurate in their depiction of the violence, depredations, and revenge military and civilian personnel dealt with--on both sides of the conflict--who lived in these areas. For example, having read the diary of one East Tennessee Unionist who endured the hardships and travails of traveling through Confederate-held territory while journeying to Camp Dick Robinson, Kentucky to join the Union Army, validated more than one might care to admit, the extreme violence dealt by both parties to their opponents, even if those opponents were family members.

The most interesting feature of this book is its sectional organization. The First section deals with Secession in the two states and how it affected the civilian and military populations of both sides. The Second deals with both states--now mired in the midst of civil strife--and how the conflict affects men, women, whites, and blacks; all of whom were involved in some way and to some extent. The Third deals with the aftermath of the war and how Kentucky, Tennessee and their respective citizenry were affected politically, socioeconomically, individually, and collectively.

While not a bibliography per se, the ‘Contributors’ section of the book provides both a ‘thumbnail’ biography of each individual and a brief listing of books, articles, and related monographs that supplement the chapters contained within this book. The index is as exhaustive and extensive as some found elsewhere and thus, is truly ‘researcher-friendly’ for those writing about any topic pertaining to the war in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Serious readers who are amateur (or professional) historians, researchers, Civil War Re-enactors, and others will find this book very interesting and challenging. Interesting in that they may recognize places they or others have lived and/or traveled to; thereby sparking discussions with others who might have anecdotal information not heretofore revealed. Challenging, in that it might create the desire to learn more about the areas in which these conflicts took place, and, would be an excellent beginning for an individual or library to develop a reading list of books and articles outside the immediate inventory of local Civil War history books for their patrons.

Frankly, while the chapters might appear to be rather broad in scope, they are actually a microcosm of people, places, and events that took place in Kentucky and Tennessee during the Civil War. There is nothing within this book that could be considered a limitation and is a phenomenal contribution for those endeavoring to study the prelude, duration, and aftermath of the Civil War in Kentucky or Tennessee.

This book should be in the collection of every local library within the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, especially those within the areas written about in these chapters; regional libraries, college/university libraries, and the private collections of amateur and professional historians.

Bill Stevens, Nursing & Allied Health Librarian, Lincoln Memorial University

Duck, L.A. (2006).The Nation's Region: Southern Modernism, Segregation, and U.S. Nationalism. Athens, GA : The University of Georgia Press.  352 pages. ISBN: 9780820328102.  

In her book The Nation’s Region, Leigh Anne Duck describes how key literature from the 1930’s-1950’s perpetuated misconceptions about the South – specifically portrayed as a “backward” region set apart from the rest of the United States in time and space.

Part one uses films as examples of racial segregation from reconstruction to the late 1930’s. Using primarily D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation and Thomas Dixon’s The Clansman, themes of regional apartheid, white supremacy and sexual hysteria are explored. Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is used as an example of how those involved in the corruption of politics may need to be schooled by those with regional values. Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind is also used as an example of how African Americans were attached to “radically restricted freedom” even after the Civil War. 

Part two explores Modernism – specifically, the works of Erskine Caldwell, Zora Neale Hurston and William Faulkner and themes of Gothicism, folk, white poverty and the working class.

The literature of the time period from the late 1930’s to the mid 1950’s is discussed in part three and features analysis of literary works from Richard Wright, Lillian Smith, Carson McCullers, Faulkner and James Agee. These works include themes of Southern migration and its effects on literature, the cold war and conservative vs. liberal politics. The book ends with a call to “new southern studies” – a further exploration of a region that contains “the coexistence of liberalism and white supremacy, and the relationships between supposedly modern and supposedly backward cultural forms.”

Duck is an assistant professor of English at the University of Memphis. Her book is a scholarly work intended for the graduate student, professor or anyone interested in a deep analysis of Southern literature, social science and/or history. It contains extensive notes, works cited and an index.

Gayla B. Hall, Librarian, International Academy of Design & Technology


Elliott, Sam Davis. (2010). Isham G. Harris of Tennessee. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010. 336 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8071-3490-0.

After reading the new biography of Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris by Sam Davis Elliott, readers may wonder why this savvy politician has been ignored for so long.

The book provides a well-researched and needed look at the little-known Harris and the Civil War from a uniquely Tennessee perspective -- from tracking the difficulties of raising an army in the state, to the immense problem of the debt incurred by Tennessee during and after the war. The politics of the time are explained in detail – shedding light on the differences between East Tennesseans and the power-wielding Middle and West Tennesseans as well as the various political factions that came and went during the period.

Sam Davis Elliott is the author of a biography about another overlooked Civil War figure, General Alexander P. Stewart, entitled “Soldier of Tennessee.”  He is a lawyer living in Chattanooga, the current chairman of the Tennessee Historical Commission and past president of the Friends of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

The book follows Isham Harris – successful as a lawyer early on – (and prodded into politics against his inclinations) through his life. Harris served as Governor during the move to secession and used his natural political skills to maneuver, through a morass of trouble to largely achieve his goals. Instead of retreating after the loss of Nashville, Harris found his role alongside the troops, serving as aide to three generals (a political feat, for certain) who commanded the Army of Tennessee and actually considered, at one point, becoming an army officer himself.

Harris fled the country after the war with a bounty on his head, defiantly writing that he would rather be a “penniless exile than to have violated principle.” He helped establish a community of Confederate expatriates in Mexico for a time, but eventually returned to Tennessee.

Harris managed not only to have his bounty withdrawn but, remarkably, returned to the US Congress after the death of Andrew Johnson, his hated rival. He maintained a cordial relationship with Jefferson Davis and helped Davis relocate to Memphis after the war. Using his prodigious political skills Harris navigated his way to four terms in the US Senate where he served as a fierce Democrat to the end, always striving to put his personal inclinations aside to benefit his party.

The book is quite readable considering the fact that Elliott drew heavily on newspapers as sources – little had been written about Harris before this treatment, according to Davis. This will be the new authoritative volume on the “War” Governor. The fact that Davis so clearly illuminates a man and an era of which the average Tennessean is probably largely ignorant is the chief joy of this read -- especially since Harris was one of the most dominant politicians Tennessee has ever seen.

The book contains a bibliography of primary and secondary sources and an index and is recommended for all libraries that want to expand their material about Tennessee history and the Civil War.

Martha Hendricks, Assistant Director, Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library

Fleming, Cynthia Griggs. (2009). Yes We Did? From King’s Dream to Obama’s Promise. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.  281 Pages.  ISBN 9780813125602.

With a thought provoking forward by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington D.C., Yes We Did? provides an insightful synopsis of black leadership in America.  Drawing from the philosophies of various phenomenal leaders such as Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barack Obama, Cynthia Griggs Fleming discusses the transformation of black leadership and its effect on America’s future.  Divided into nine chapters, the book focuses on topics such as socioeconomic status, female black leadership, media influence, black conservatism, and generational conflicts.  Fleming interviews activists and scholars closely connected to the civil rights struggle.  Featuring such veteran civil rights leaders as Rev. Samuel Billy Kyles, the only living person with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the night he was killed to Al Sharpton and Dr. C.T. Vivian, Yes We Did? succeeds at providing an exceptional historical overview of how these individuals facilitated present day leadership progression in the black community.  In addition, Fleming combines the diverse experiences and viewpoints of contemporary leaders such as Carol Mosley Braun, Harold Ford Jr., and Jesse Jackson Jr.  The historic election of President Barack Obama has inspired a new generation of leaders and new perspectives on who should possess leadership roles in the African-American community.  Yes We Did? encourages dialogue and intellectual debate on this extremely controversial issue.

Cynthia Griggs Fleming experienced racial segregation as a child while visiting her grandmother in Knoxville.  She was inspired to write Yes We Did?, because she wanted people to know about the civil rights struggle and history. She observed the hard work and determination of African-American leaders in Knoxville as well as other parts of the country and their quest for equality. Inspired by their perseverance, she wanted to reflect on how their effective leadership shifted our country forward. Dr. Fleming has a PhD from Duke University.  She has written books and many articles on the civil rights movement of the 1960’s including Soon We Will Not Cry: The Liberation of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson.

One of the most captivating features of this book is the photography.  Striking black and white glossy photographs capture many of the individuals mentioned in the book in rare private moments.  The extensive notes section and comprehensive index make the book an excellent research source.   The inclusion of a section, timeline, or graphic dedicated to highlighting milestones related to African-American leadership would have enhanced the book.  Yes We Did? is highly recommended for academic collections. It will prove to be an excellent resource for academic scholars and researchers because of the significance of its subject matter to our current political and social agenda. High school libraries will benefit from having Yes We Did? in their collections, because it introduces young students to veteran and contemporary African-American leaders and highlights the major contributions they have made to our communities.

Cassandra L. Jackson, MLS Library Information Specialist Memphis City Schools

Frick-Ruppert, Jennifer. (2010). Mountain Nature: A Seasonal Natural History of the Southern Appalachians. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. 256 pages.  ISBN 9780807871164.

The author’s love of the southern Appalachian Mountains is apparent from the beginning, with poetic descriptions of seasonal changes like “autumn’s hillsides of patchwork plaid are replaced by the silence and majesty of winter’s snow-cushioned forests and ice-stilled streams.”  After providing a short geological history of the region, Dr. Frick-Ruppert discusses the cycles of nature and delves into the abundant and diverse ecology of the mountains, leading the reader from the blooming of spring to the freezing of winter.  

Mountain Nature is divided by seasons, and each one covers the varied forms of life – from bears to butterflies, orchids to mushrooms – associated with that season. The book is well-illustrated with over forty black and white photographs and 16 pages of color plates.  Each animal, plant or insect mentioned is identified by both its common and scientific names.  The seasons are peppered with “sidebars,” interesting highlights such as “Fire Ants and Global Warming,” “Poison Ivy Potion,” and “Monarch Migration Locations.”  Each season ends with a description of the climactic conditions for the season. The author has included a map of the southern Appalachian Mountains and a list of federal public lands in the region.  The bibliography offers regional field guides, general references and scientific references for those who wish to learn more about the area.

Dr. Jennifer Frick-Ruppert, is well-qualified to take us on this year-long tour of the southern Appalachians. A professor of Environmental Studies/Ecology at Brevard College in North Carolina, she also directs the Appalachian Center for Environmental Education and chairs the Sherwood Forest Native Plant Committee.  Her other work includes developing environmental education websites, writing “Appalachian Almanac” (the basis for this book) in the Transylvania Times  (Brevard, NC) and articles in peer-reviewed journals. 

Mountain Nature gives the reader a detailed, fascinating look at nature in the southern Appalachian Mountains using the logical progression of spring through winter.  This book is would be a valuable addition to any academic library, and to public libraries whose patrons have an interest in the region.

Zinia Randles, Senior Library Assistant, Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University

Howard, Francine Thomas. (2010). Page from a Tennessee Journal. Las Vegas: AmazonEncore.  275 pages.  ISBN  982555067.

Page from a Tennessee Journal is one of four books selected for the 2009 Breakthrough Novel Award, co-sponsored by Amazon.com, CreateSpace, and Penguin Group (USA), chosen for its potential in becoming a breakout popular novel. ­Francine Thomas Howard does an exceptional job depicting a period in American history wherein African-Americans living in the South travelled northward in a movement known as “The Great Migration.”  She personalizes this era by supplying the reader with a well told tale of two families living in rural Tennessee circa 1913, one black and one white, and the events that ultimately resulted in cataclysmic, life-altering changes for both. By the author’s own statement, her debut novel was inspired by family secrets.

The story revolves around a farm that is at once rather humble while being large enough for sharecropping. In a fast moving plot, a white farmer, Alexander McNaughton, falls in love with black sharecropper, Annalaura Welles. The time period within which this love story is set makes it apparent to the reader that things are not going to end well. Surprises abound from the reactions of Alex’s very practical wife, Eula Mae, to the actions of the long absent husband, John Welles, upon his return. Readers may be horrified by the brutality and indifference towards women depicted in the novel, especially black women, but readers will also be heartened by their strength and resourcefulness as portrayed in the well-drawn characters of Annalaura and eventually, the white woman, Eula Mae. Howard is adept at creating characters with depth; while using stereotyping for secondary characters to save time and words, she does not spare language while developing the characters of the strong, sensual Annalaura, the stodgy, pragmatic Eula Mae, the weak Alex, and the charming, dangerous John. The Welles children are amazing – one wants to pick them up and take them out of their horrendous circumstances. The other men and women in the book are stereotypical products of the social culture of the time and place.

Readers are taken aback upon reading of this time post-Civil War when things were little better than in the mid-1800s as the sharecroppers were trapped in the South and its extreme racial bias. Portions of the narrative were difficult to read as women were raped, men killed on a whim and children were deemed of little consequence; as the story reaches its climax, the momentum is tangible. The style in which Howard handles this breakneck action with love, revenge, and pride all taking roles, is a portent of her ability to write more good novels in the future. Certainly, the ending is the right one, and is begging for a sequel!

This book is recommended for public library collections and for academic libraries that wish to offer strong regional fiction to accompany American history curricula.

Sandra C. Clariday, Professor & Associate Dean for Library & Information Services, Merner Pfeiffer Library, Tennessee Wesleyan College

Huber, Patrick.  (2008). Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South.  Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.  416 pages. ISBN 9780807832257

The title of Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South, as author Patrick Huber explains, is partially taken from  a derogatory term for millhands working in the textile industry who would regularly leave work covered head to foot in lint after long shifts.  If these workers still had energy during their time off, they engaged in a variety of leisure activities which often included listening to and performing music.   Combining biography, sociology, and well-documented historical research, Huber describes how the rapid industrialization of the Piedmont South and the migration of rural workers to mill town communities situated there created a fertile environment and ready audience for early American country music, marketed as “hillbilly” music by record companies in the 1920s and 1930s.   He shows how mill town life influenced the music created by and for workers and how mill wages earned (often for the first time in many lives) some disposable income that supported much of the early market for this music.  The music, in return, assisted mill workers drawn to hillbilly music because it reminded them of their rural upbringing and addressed their common concerns to create new communities within the mill villages.  

In addition to detailing the many reasons why hillbilly music resonated with and arose from these workers, Huber offers an extensive biography of four diverse musicians who once worked in textile mills and whose lives and art were influenced by mill town life.  Atlanta’s Fiddlin’ John Carson was the first hillbilly musician to prove the commercial viability of country music with his 1923 “hit” recording of the minstrel song “The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane.”  A natural showman and self-promoter, Carson was already a well-known radio musician when first recorded.  His original “hit” was followed by over 180 other recordings and he remained a popular recording artist until changing musical tastes and the Great Depression ended his recording career. 

Huber also examines the brief, but influential life and career of the talented North Carolina banjoist, singer, and bandleader, Charlie Poole.  An early exponent of the three-fingered banjo style which would later be adopted as the signature sound of bluegrass music, Poole and his band, the North Carolina Ramblers, recorded several highly successful singles (or “sides”) between 1925 and 1930 featuring innovative arrangements of traditional songs and fiddle tunes, songs from minstrelsy and vaudeville theater, and parlor songs.  Poole not only bucked the uniformity and structure of mill work, but he also fought against the constraints of the hillbilly music industry which restrained his banjo virtuosity to conform to the expectations of the record buying public.  Poole’s rough, rowdy, and rambling ways (which made him unsuitable for the mill work he was still occasionally forced to take) and chronic alcoholism led to his early death at just 39 years of age. 

Born into a North Carolina family of textile millworkers and a millhand himself by the age of twelve, Dave McCarn took up music as a means to escape the harsh realities of mill work.  Although he worked in mills on and off throughout his life, McCarn was frequently dissatisfied with the work and was thought of by his contemporaries as a rambler willing to leave his work and family without warning in search of better opportunities or, perhaps, just a way out.  His almost accidental recording career was launched when in 1930 he stumbled into an opportunity to record two songs, “Cotton Mill Colic” and “Everyday Dirt,” while he and his younger brother were just passing through Memphis, TN, looking for work during the height of the Great Depression.  McCarn recorded few songs and, as Huber points out, is best known for “darkly comical social protest songs” such as “Cotton Mill Colic” which became popular with millworkers in the labor movement of the 1930s and with later generations of folksingers in and outside of the labor movement.  

Howard and Dorsey Dixon, who recorded and performed as the Dixon Brothers, provide great contrast from the lives and recorded output of McCarn and Poole.   Raised by a devoutly Christian family who constantly struggled with poverty despite their father’s various jobs in South Carolina textile mills, both sons followed their father into textile millwork.  While both sons also followed the fundamentalist faith of their parents, Dorsey, who barely survived childbirth, believed throughout his life that God had saved him for a special calling.  Although Dorsey, the primary songwriter of the pair, wrote both sacred and secular songs (many involving mill town life,) he was most “called” to write religious songs or songs memorializing and taking lesson from tragic events such as his most famous composition, “Wreck on the Highway (I Didn’t Hear Nobody Pray.) 

These artists’ lives and music exemplify wide-ranging attitudes toward life and work of mill hands in the Piedmont South.  Huber does indeed show that the experience of mill work and mill town life played a role in the development of country music.  Appendices include a directory of Southern textile workers who made “hillbilly” recordings between 1923 and 1942 and a discography of the commercial recordings reissued on compact disc released by these workers.  The book is carefully indexed with extensive end notes and a bibliography.  The double meaning of this enjoyable and interesting book’s subtitle, The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South, can be read two ways.  Huber certainly proves that some influential country music and a large market for this music were created in the Piedmont South.  The roots of country music emanate from many musical precursors and geographical regions, though, and are just too far-reaching for any one region or demographic group to claim without controversy that all the significant roots lie in their soil.

Chris Durman, Music Librarian for Public Services, George F. DeVine Music Library, University of Tennessee Libraries

Hinson, G. and Ferris, W. (Eds.) (2009). The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (Vol. 14 Folklife). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. 424 pages. ISBN 9780807859896.

The newest volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture deals with folklife, the ways in which “communities make and share meaning.” These communities might have in common race and/or cultural heritage, geographic location, religious belief, or family. The book opens with a contemporary gospel music example to demonstrate that “tradition was, is, and continues to develop.”

The Encyclopedia was first published as one volume in 1989 as a joint project of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and the University of North Carolina Press. Recognizing the continued growth and importance of the Southern culture, the two entities have published an updated version, this time with 24 separate volumes, each on a different topic. This volume on Folklife includes 60 additional topics over the previous edition and is divided into three parts: a 25-page introduction, 50 thematic entries, and 56 topical entries, followed by an index of contributors and a name/topic index.

Southern folklife revolves around music and includes  American Indian, band, bluegrass, blues, Cajun, country, gospel, hip-hop, soul, and string band genres. Inseparable from music is the art of dance. Particular to the South are buckdancing, flatfooting, clogging, line dancing, square dancing, and two-stepping. Another primary theme in southern culture is death, with emphasis on cemetery preservation and decoration, grave markers, funerals, ghost stories, voodoo, and roadside memorials.

The South is also known for its folk crafts, including turning pots, quilting, and wood carving. Particularly interesting and helpful in this volume is the extensive coverage of the crafts which documents difference in regions and differences among white, African American, and Native American artistry. In basketmaking, for example, one must look at texture, use, color, materials, and symbolism in order to truly understand the importance of a particular item.

Finally, while southerners enjoy all sports, they are partial to those that lend themselves to the outdoors: fishing and hunting. The stories originating from these shared experiences among fathers and sons and their canine accompaniment provide bonding that connects the generations.

The most interesting discovery for me was the realization of how much of day-to-day activity in Tennessee is truly reflective of the South yet is taken for granted as regional universal. One cannot visit or live in the South long without being aware of its music and art or hearing of the passing of someone’s loved one. All academic and public libraries that deal with southern heritage should own this easy-to-read, comprehensive collection of volumes.

Dr. Glenn Hinson is associate professor of folklore and anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to writing this book, Dr. Hinson worked with African American gospel singers and studied local musical traditions through elementary school curricula. William Ferris is Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was a co-editor of the original Encyclopedia.

Pamela R. Dennis, Library Director, Lambuth University

Jabbour, Alan and Karen Singer Jabbour. (2010). Decoration Day in the Mountains:  Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians.  Chapel Hill:  University of North Carolina Press. 256 pages. ISBN 9780807833971.

Decorating cemeteries is a dynamic example of the connection of the past and the present.  Gravestones give the appearance of permanence but the meaning of their story is constantly revised by the community that cares for the graves.  Folklorist Alan Jabbour and photographer Karen Singer Jabbour spent five years in western North Carolina documenting the custom of “decorating” cemeteries that has been practiced in the rural mountain areas from a time predating the Civil War.  Their work is a significant addition to the growing scholarship dealing with the construction of historical memory and the battle between tradition and progress.

Decoration Day in the mountains of Western Carolina is a tradition that has been observed since possibly as early as the late eighteenth century.  Jabbour gives evidence that this custom is derived from European sources and not a copy of post-Civil War memorial days in the north.  It is more likely that northerners traveling in the south witnessed southern decoration days and incorporated many of the ideas in the creation of our national Memorial Day. 

There are some variations to how the special day is structured today but nearly all Decoration Day celebrations are preceded by a thorough cleaning of the grounds in preparation for the event.  Some of the cemeteries studied here are difficult to reach by normal modes of transportation and, therefore, require a tremendous amount of work to make up for a year’s worth of inattention.  The day-long ceremony, usually scheduled in late spring or early summer, consists of gospel singing and a brief sermon followed by a time of decorating the graves and reflecting on the loved ones buried beneath the flower-covered mounds.   At the close of the ceremony the group shares dinner, usually there on the grounds, before returning home.  The celebration itself is the biggest social event of the year for many of these small rural areas and the day of “decorating” and “visiting” is as important to maintaining the ties of kinship and neighborhood among the living as to commemorating the dead buried beneath the beautifully adorned graves. 

A chapter committed to the unique history of the North Shore’s Decoration Day suggests the tenacity of this tradition in the Appalachian region.  Hundreds of families were removed from the area in the 1940s as Fontana Dam was completed on the Little Tennessee River.  The government promised to build a road that would allow the former residents access to their loved ones buried on the bluffs above the flooded valley.  This promise remains unfulfilled and a small portion of road that was constructed has received the sarcastic title “Road to Nowhere” due to its abrupt ending just beyond a stretch through a long tunnel.  In 1978 the US government responded to protests over the unfinished road by agreeing to ferry decoration parties across the water to the many cemeteries on the other side.  The Jabbours took part in several of these unique Decoration Day celebrations and found this variation of the tradition produced the feeling of “a mythic transition from one world to the next, a pilgrimage from the secular to the timeless sacred world.”(4)

Decoration Day in the Mountains is a well-researched and elegantly written book.  The hours Mr. Jabbour spent in the libraries and archives along with personal interviews and first-hand observation has produced a narrative that gives significance to the little-studied tradition in the Appalachians known as Decoration Day.  Ms. Jabbour’s photographs are equally important to the book and allow the reader a glimpse at an underappreciated example of communal folk art.  This book is recommended to both Academic and Public libraries. 

Ross  Mailhiot, MA Candidate, Department of History, Middle Tennessee State University

Luce, Dianne C. (2009). Reading the World: Cormac McCarthy’s Tennessee Period.  Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. 336 pages. ISBN 9781570038242.

As president of the Cormac McCarthy Society, Dianne Luce has a deep interest in the exploration of the work produced by this increasingly significant author. Herein Luce focuses on McCarthy’s earliest published writing during the time he lived in and around Knoxville, Tennessee. Having been a McCarthy scholar for some thirty years Luce gives us far more than a cursory examination of The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark, Child of God, The Gardener’s Son, and Suttree. Despite the decidedly academic bent of Reading the World, an ambitious lay reader desiring to learn either more about McCarthy’s writing or early to middle twentieth century East Tennessee history will come away enriched on both counts.

Cormac McCarthy’s rise in the general public consciousness began with the film adaption of All the Pretty Horses in the early 1990’s. With the award of the 2007 Pulitzer for The Road closely followed by the 2008 Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, McCarthy has moved away from the margins of academia to the more mainstream, making the examination of his early works a valuable endeavor to librarians of all stripes but especially for those who care to delve into questions of Platonic and Gnostic myths, existentialism, and antinomianism. I didn’t know what most of those words meant when I began reading this title and am still rather uncertain. Yet Luce’s work prompted me to read The Gardener’s Son (a screenplay; it is the briefest and most accessible title she discusses) following which I found myself disagreeing with certain of her assertions achieving the purpose of scholarly discourse: the generation of thought in the pursuit of knowledge.

Although the focus of the book is on the 5 titles from 1959-1979 McCarthy’s other work is used for purposes of comparison and contrast. Early in my reading I took issue with the supposition that the reader has such familiarity with McCarthy’s body of work as well as with what I saw as blurred lines of fact and fiction, and some confusing citations. There is also a presumption that the reader has a deep understanding of the numerous literary references, from Yeats to Camus with Moby Dick in between. However, by the end of the book (and I do mean end as I read the excellent “Notes” section) I was eager to explore more of McCarthy’s writing. Luce does not limit the reader to her interpretation alone as she includes a substantial number of other academic perspectives to either supplant or support her positions.

Luce gives a great deal of attention to various areas of Appalachian Tennessee. Specifically, in her chapter on The Orchard Keeper she examines the impact of industrialization on the area in and around Blount County with particular emphasis to the TVA's encroachment on the wild land. She calls McCarthy "indebted to the history and lore of East Tennessee" (133) for the world he creates in Outer Dark. Her investigation into Child of God finds her to delving into newspaper reports from the Sevier County of the 1950s and 1960s. The fictional Graniteville of The Gardener's Son not placed in a state but the mill therein represents the soul-deadening work of the machine driven factory in all locales. Finally, Suttree is shown to represent the Knoxville of the early 1950s.

Dianne Luce has written a scholarly treatise that will be a strong addition to any collection with emphasis on Cormac McCarthy, Southern literature, or modern fiction. Beyond the scholarly there is the more general consideration of what it means to be human in a modern, industrial world.

Elizabeth Heffington, Catalog Librarian, Beaman Library, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN

McDonough, James Lee. (2009). The Wars of Myron King:  A B-17 Pilot Faces WWII and U.S.-Soviet Intrigue.  Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press.  246 pages.  ISBN  97811572336759.

James McDonough is a professor emeritus of history at Auburn University in Alabama and the author of ten books.  For this book, he was able to interview Myron King and two other members of his crew and consult a diary, transcripts, and several personal books and documents.  Additional information came from the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Pooler, Georgia, and the Historical Records Division of Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

Myron King grew up in Hampton Bays, Long Island, New York, where he spent his spring and summer, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he spent his fall and winter.  He attended college at Nashville’s David Lipscomb College, then a two-year institution.  King met a local woman, Eleanor Goodpasture, before leaving for service and married her in 1945.  After the war, he returned to Nashville and went back to college on the G.I. Bill to finish his degree.  King graduated from George Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University) with a degree in art in 1948 and, the same year, opened the Lyzon Art Gallery on West Thompson Lane in Nashville.  The gallery became very successful and launched the careers of many artists.  The business is still operating as Nashville’s oldest gallery and frame shop.

McDonough tells King’s story, using the first three chapters to touch briefly on his early life and military training in the United States.  The rest of the book focuses on his service in the Air Force and the time he was stationed in England, as well as the military and political situations in Europe.  The author includes information on the types of planes, the difficulty of the bombing missions, the work of the ground crew, and other details that help the reader understand what the pilots and crew endured during the war.

As part of the 401^st Bombardment Group in the U.S. Eighth Air Force, King flew a B-17 bomber on twenty missions in Europe.  During the last mission, the plane was damaged and forced to land in Poland.  King and his crew had to deal with the Russian forces that held the area, and a seemingly simple misunderstanding turned into a major incident that resulted in King’s unjust and undeserved court-martial.  It took almost seven years for the sentence to be overturned and King cleared of any wrong-doing.

McDonough has obviously conducted a great deal of research and writes a well-written, interesting story.  He conveys the hardships and challenges faced by the military, as well as the complicated political issues that eventually led to the Cold War.  By using a little known story, McDonough puts a personal touch on history that should be especially intriguing to Tennesseans.

This book includes two maps, several photographs, extensive notes, a bibliography, and an index.  This is a truly enjoyable and informative book, and is suitable for all public and academic libraries.

Virginia L. Salmon, Librarian, Northeast State Community College

Noe, Kenneth W. (2010). Reluctant Rebels : The Confederates Who Joined the Army after 1861. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.  320 pages. ISBN 9780807833773

Existing Civil War literature explains why soldiers enlisted and fought, but favors those who enlisted at the beginning of the war. Author Noe, a professor of history at Auburn University, has written widely on the Civil War. In Reluctant Rebels he looks at Confederate soldiers who waited months or years before enlisting (“later enlisters”). It is based on the letters of 320 soldiers who joined after January, 1862. No post-1865 documents were used, as these might contain perspectives altered by time and post-war events. Documents consulted include essays, memoirs, and regimental histories. Noe’s soldiers held the rank of captain and below; most were privates. While considering why these men did not fight initially, and why they ultimately did enlist, Noe surveys the existing historical literature on why Civil War soldiers fought. Areas examined include duty, honor, and country; slavery; women and the role they played in soldiers’ decisions to enlist and in sustaining morale; government financial incentives; religion; the role of camaraderie; war weariness; and combat motivation (“seeing the elephant”).

Not surprisingly, later enlisters had much in common with those who enlisted before them. These later enlisters showed great courage. Like earlier enlisters, they most often chose fight rather than flight, time after time. They were not more likely to desert or to conduct themselves poorly in battle. They were motivated by notions of family and neighborhood more than by ideological concepts such as nationalism, and fought to protect their property and families. They fought to preserve slavery but also fought against Northern forces that represented emancipation and the destruction of property. Often older than those who enlisted at the onset, these later enlisters were worn down more heavily and suffered more health problems from the rigors of soldiering. They helped fill the ranks of the Confederate Army, but were too few in number to save it. Less idealistic, for these later enlisters the war was more of a natural disaster than a noble adventure. Although the author is sympathetic to the sacrifices made by the soldiers he studied, Noe acknowledges the Union victory was the preferred outcome of the Civil War.

A lengthy appendix provides data on the soldiers sampled in the study. Reluctant Rebels contains comprehensive notes, bibliography, and index, as well as six illustrations. It contains no maps. The scholarly format makes this monograph most suitable for academic libraries. It will appeal to readers interested in Civil War history and military history in general who possess a basic understanding of the political and military background of the conflict.

Peter Brush, History Bibliographer, Central Library Vanderbilt University

Patton, Lisa. (2009). Whistlin’ Dixie in a Nor’easter. NY: Thomas Dunne Books.  320 pages.  ISBN 9780312556600.

Leelee Satterfield is the darling Southern Belle daughter of a wealthy Memphis family.  For her, Memphis has everything.  She and her three best friends, Virginia, Mary Jule, and Alice are closer than sisters.  They were all born in the same hospital, started kindergarten together on the same day, and have gabbed on the phone every day since.  They roomed together at Ole Miss, pledged the same sorority, came back home, married, had their babies while the other “sisters” took over the waiting room at Baptist Hospital and had a hen party.

Leelee married Baker Satterfield – her heartthrob since the tenth grade.  He works for his Dad’s insurance company and they have two little girls that Leelee calls “giggle-boxes” and a lovely home that Leelee spent a year decorating.  In other words, she has everything she ever wanted right there in Memphis and can’t imagine living anywhere else.

But Baker decides that he is tired of the insurance business and his dream is to run a quaint Vermont inn.  Leelee is appalled at the idea of leaving Memphis and her family and friends, and heading to a place “where I had never even stepped foot…where I didn’t know one soul…”   But move they did.  This is the story of an uprooted Southern girl who finds herself in Vermont, the new owner of a “quaint Vermont inn” which also happens to have a bad case of houseitosis (a charming combination of body odor, musty upholstery, garlic and propane gas.)  The beautiful old building was ragged and tattered, with tacky décor, and the master bedroom in the “superb owner’s quarters” is a cubbyhole with curtains for doors and hooks for a closet.  Leelee is completely unprepared for the things that the travel books don’t tell you about Vermont – mud season and vampire flies for a start.

When (as the book cover says) “an unexpected hardship takes Leelee by surprise,” she finds herself drawing on her own untested strength of character and gumption in order to run an inn, pay the mortgage, manage difficult staff, and raise her two daughters.  Her Memphis friends don’t desert her and they play a part in her adventure, but they are a long way from Vermont and Leelee has to deal with most of the challenges on her own.

Whistlin’ Dixie in a Nor’easter is a charming, if uneven, first novel by Lisa Patton, a native of Memphis.   The story is entertaining and the characters have real potential.  The character development is uneven, sometimes choppy which is distracting and confusing.  For example, Leelee’s character occasionally undergoes a major change with little or no warning so that the reader is left feeling that they must have missed something along the way.  But overall, Whistlin’ is a fun read and a book that will appeal to readers who like a story with humor where the good guys come out on top and the bad guys get what’s coming to them.

Beverly Simmons, UC Foundation Assistant Professor, Reference and Instruction Librarian, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Phillips, J. (2007). Diehard Rebels: The Confederate Culture of Invincibility. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. 272 pages. ISBN 0820334332.

In this well-researched work, the author attempts to explain the ethos of the southern soldiers that kept them fighting for their cause in spite of the hardships and defeats they experienced. He credits their “sincere faith in the invincibility of the Rebel cause” as the reason so many Rebel soldiers would not give up even after the war was officially over.  According to the author, there were several major factors that helped to create a rose colored reality for the soldiers and enforced their faith in their invincibility.  Possibly the most important of these was their unshakable belief that only their cause was just, and, therefore, God must be on their side and would not let them fail.  This belief was supported and encouraged by the religious leaders of the South.  The author includes excerpts from sermons and other writings, as well as letters of the soldiers from Virginia to Texas, to prove that religion played a big part in reinforcing the belief that God would not let them lose. 

The second factor was their stereotyping of the enemy as inept and/or evil.  Examples of cartoons from newspapers of the day, depict Abraham Lincoln and the northern generals as clowns, puppets or devils. These helped to prove to the soldiers that they would have no trouble defeating such an army of misfits. 

A third factor was the camaraderie that the soldiers experienced in their camps and on the field of battle.  They supported each other, building up the faith in each other and in their cause.  And, as in any major conflict there was the hearsay, irresponsible newspaper coverage, and propaganda to give them the perception that they were winning the war. 

The final chapter of the book looks at the long-term effects of the “invincibility” belief on Southern culture and also how the confederate experience compares to the experiences of other defeated armies. 

The excerpts from soldier’s letters interspersed throughout the book give a personal view of the war and represent the real feelings and beliefs of the individual soldiers.  These letters show how the soldiers of the Confederacy “struggled to maintain their values and identity” in spite of all the hardships of war.  They were truly “unconquered losers.”

Dr. Phillips, an assistant professor of history at Mississippi State University, includes numerous notes, an eighteen page bibliography and an adequate index.  This book would be an asset to anyone who is looking for a different perspective of the Civil War.  It is recommended for all high school, public and college libraries.

Sue Alexander, User Services Librarian, Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University

Pierce, Daniel S. (2010).  Real NASCAR : White Lightnin’, Red Clay and Big Bill France. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 360 pages. ISBN 9780807833841.

NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) is big business.  Top drivers can earn millions in purses and endorsements.  Fans of NASCAR are some of the most loyal of any sport.  At tracks that can accommodate upwards of 150,000 fans, NASCAR races are some of the most widely watched sporting events in the U.S., and are televised in over 150 countries.  NASCAR is deeply tied to the South, and Tennessee plays an important role in its history.  Nashville, home of one of the oldest race tracks in the country, hosted at least one Winston Cup race from 1958 to 1984.  Bristol International Raceway (now Bristol Motor Speedway), built in 1961, is one of the fastest half-mile tracks in the U.S.  Sprint Cup and Nationwide series races are run there, as well as NASCAR Camping World Series races.  Many of the great NASCAR drivers have Tennessee roots, including Darrell Waltrip, Sterling Marlin, Mark Day and Bobby Hamilton. 

Real NASCAR : White Lightning, Red Clay and Big Bill France shows us how all that got started.  Daniel S. Pierce tells the history of stock car racing, from its beginnings in the early 1900’s, through the early 1970s, when NASCAR founder, Bill France, retired.  Pierce doesn’t leave anything out, relating the tragedies and unsavory side of the sport, as well as the colorful exploits and legendary stories. 

Stock car racing did get its start in the illicit alcohol trade, but Real NASCAR demonstrates there was much more to it than moonshiners outrunning the law.  The cars were the same cars that ordinary men drove (with “enhancements”).  The drivers were men who were known as friends and neighbors, and who became heroes.  Some of the races still held today started out as competitions on run dirt tracks and sandy beaches, sometimes more about pride than money.

Bill France was just as important to the creation of NASCAR as running whiskey was to the sport’s beginnings.  He was there from the start, as a mechanic, a driver, and finally a promoter.  Stock car racing had outgrown its beginnings, and France saw it needed organization and standards in order to survive.  The organization he founded provided the structure it needed and secured racing’s place in American sports.

Daniel S. Pierce is a professor and department chair in history at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.  With Real NASCAR, he wanted to show that NASCAR is more than “rednecks racing in circles”.  Dr. Pierce accomplished his goals of explaining why NASCAR has such loyal fans, and explaining stock car racing in its social and historical context.   The book is illustrated with black and white photographs, and includes an extensive bibliography.

Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay and Big Bill France would be a very good addition to both public and academic libraries.

Zinia Randles, Senior Library Assistant, James E. Walker Library, MTSU