This book is an American twist on the traditional Cinderella. Ashpet is a servant on an Appalachian farm. Instead of going to the ball, the charcters go to a "meeting." The Prince is a doctor's son. The fairy god mother is an elderly woman who is all alone. This book is a nice varient of Cinderella and will provide another view on the traditional tale.

Perhaps you're familiar with the name Benton MacKaye (1879-1975); at the very least, you've heard of the Appalachian Trail. You might see the title of this book and say, "Oh, OK, he was the guy who thought up the idea for a footpath from Maine to Georgia. Big deal. I've never stepped on it, so why should I care about him?" Well, without Benton MacKaye, we probably wouldn't have the Trail. We might not have a Wilderness Society, the Wilderness Act of 1964, the National Trail Systems Act of 1968, or the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. We might not have Shenandoah National Park in Virginia or the Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddling the Tennessee-North Carolina border. We could instead have just interstate highways crowning the entire length of the eastern mountain range. We could conceivably have uninterrupted suburbia from the Atlantic coastline to the Midwest, with little consideration given to the mountains or any natural area in between. Benton MacKaye might very well be one of the most influential 20th-century American environmentalists you've never heard of.

A New Englander with a Harvard graduate degree in forestry, MacKaye spent most of his professional life taking a variety of short-term government or association jobs that dealt with conservation issues. Eventually he carved a niche for himself as an outspoken regional planner. He was adept at writing articles and proposing legislation that included catchy words or concepts: geotechnics, new exploration, townless highways, highwayless towns, watershed democracies, wildland belts, and habitability. For MacKaye was at heart a boy who loved to wander through the natural landscape of central Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. In the early 1900s, he was already worried about increasing numbers of motorists invading those wild spaces, particularly into the region's mountainous areas. He spent the majority of his life fighting to keep those places "sound-proof as well as sight-proof" from the intrusion of contemporary civilization. In some ways, he was the Thoreau of his day.

The formal publication of "The Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning" (included here as an appendix) came to fruition in 1921, and it laid the foundation for the rest of his articles and essays. We who consider ourselves environmentalists today find his words still striking an inner chord. MacKaye wrote in the 1950s: "Verily, the first and simplest rule on earth: Give back to the earth that which we take from her. Return the good we have borrowed; in short, pay our ecological bills. Pay them in dirt, not dollars. It's the only currency the good earth accepts. Too long have we lived on dollar ecology." (p. 336) Yes, Mr. MacKaye, yes. Let's shout that one from the mountaintops, if we can still find them.

Anderson is admirably neutral in presenting the facts and interpreting MacKaye's connections with and influences on more "famous" individuals like Lewis Mumford, Aldo Leopold, Bob Marshall, and Olaus Murie. That must have been a tough job indeed, since the author obviously spent a huge amount of time with his subject. The resulting details are valuable to have compiled into one volume but might limit readership to scholars of the AT or of the environmental movement. With every turn of a page, though, his chronicle of MacKaye's endeavors brings home a basic truth that still holds today: that every environmental debate is a political one. We can be either encouraged or chagrined by that knowledge.

Can I just tell you, I was tickled pink by Troy's voyeuristic adventure into the lives of those wild and crazy Appalachian folk. Despite having read this book eons ago, I was again reminded of its universal theme while watching "Space Truckers" last night. First and foremost: never agree to take a shipload of square pigs on an intergalaxtic adventure without getting a down payment. And only less importantly, realize your limitations when trying to impose your ideas (especially those of religious origins) on those who don't fully appreciate the fact that Donna finally gave it up to boost viewer ratings.

Into the hills and hollows of Appalachia this book travels to examine the faith of the hill-folk. Written primarily by academics, the contributors are familiar with mountain people and their Christian beliefs. The plurality of the region's faith is emphasized with some contributors searching for a common "mountain religion". From serpent-handlers to double predestinationists, Appalachia is a patchwork quilt, inwhich low church traditions predominate. The low church traditions differ perhaps from other regions of America in that here these traditions are divided up into schisms and sub-schisms. Mainline denominations are included but their relative lack of success with the hill-folk makes their story less interesting. For myself, I found the mountain Baptist and Pentecostal churches by far the most intriquing. In particular the chapters on the Old Time Baptists by Howard Dorgan, Serpent-Handlers by Mary Lee Daughtery, and the Profile of the Church of God by Donald N. Bowdle are worth the price of the book. Some of the other contributors are a bit dry, getting bogged down in denominational minutia and programs rather than describing the people and their faith. In that respect, the book is somewhat like gold mining: a lot of ore, but the nuggets are so worth all the work. As a farmer, I enjoyed the chapter on the "tobacco churches" by Poage. If you love the Southern Appalachians as I do, and are intrigued by its people, you will enjoy this book. The mountain people who are sometimes condescendingly seen as simple, are here portrayed as genuine, sincere zealous seekers of God. With the homogenization of America through mass media(yes, there are satellite dishes in Appalachia), one wonders how much longer the "mountain religion" will remain relatively unchanged. As Samuel S. Hill states in the last chapter, these people are not "frozen in time". But, on an optimistic note, perhaps the mountain people with no quest to be "up to date"(like, for example those in Mainline Protestantism), will continue to remain relatively unchanged, and ironically these premoderns will have something relevant to teach us in the postmodern world.

As the title suggests, this book is about the history of the area surrounding Windrock Mountain, Tennessee, beginning with the earliest non-native settlers in the late 1700's. For the most part, the book is structured like a tour of the main route around the mountain. The book is partly based on a series of articles by the author when she was a writer for the Oak Ridger Newspaper until 1970. Her original contribution is documenting her interviews of, and tours with, descendents of early settlers. She also presents information from older newspaper articles and other sources, and the old pictures included in the book are a treat. The book is good reading for someone who is interested in the history of this relatively remote area. The area is only a short distance from Oak Ridge, the Atomic City. It previously supported thousands of farmers and coal miners and their families, and is now home to three 200+ feet tall TVA windmills on Buffalo Mountain (next to Windrock Mountain).

I took the class Death and Dying with Dr. Crissman, the author of this book, and it is really informational. The details that he presents in this book are vivid. Though the pictures are not of the best quality, this is understandable because they are from the early part of the century. The research that he performed for this book allows for the inclusion of information that normally would not find its way into a text book. Don't get me wrong, this is not written in a traditional text format, but there is enough factual information in it that allows for it to be used as such or as a recreational reading book. I would recommend this book if you are interested in the various rituals that have been performed in the past in association with death and the meaning behind those rituals.

Sunday mornings are always my favorite times to go driving. There is no one on the road and the church parking lots are filled. Religion is the backbone to the south; every small town has atleast 2 churches, if not more. Going through one town, I counted 5 different churches in one mile of each other.

I moved to South Carolina when I was a child. Both parents were "yankees" and had no use for the local Baptist women's group or the ARP pews. I never attended any summer Bible schools or belonged to any youth groups. My world consisted of playing on top of the chicken coop or climbing the large oak trees on our property. It wasn't until I reached high school until I realized how important religion is to this area. I opened my locker one day and there was a note inviting me to a revival. I decided that I would go. What a shock it was. At that point, I had only attended Catholic churches, and not very often at that. I had never heard people speak in tounges before, and when the person I was standing next to fell on the floor, I was ready to leave.

Several months later, I was in a bookstore and came across "Foxfire 7". I took it home and stayed up reading long into the night. I apperciated that it was broken into different sections, such as "Baptists", or "Methodists". The people who talked about their domonation were preachers and parsioners both. Each subject was fully researched and developed. I use the book still as a refrence.

I have carried on my parents lack of enthusium toward southern religion, but I will take the tracts given out by soon-to-be preachers at the local grocery store.

I just picked this up from the library a few days ago. I found it to be a quick and entertaining read. From the age of the book (published in 1977) you can tell that the information concerning the trail is dated, but the trials the hikers faced are still relevant today. I suppose that is the real value of this book. If you can find the book at a reasonable price and have an interest in hiking I think you will enjoy this book.

Overall this book describes all of Pennsylvania's hiking trails. Pennsylvania has over three thousand miles of hiking trails, so it is important to find a good book the depicts all of them. It also includes several modern waterproof topographical maps that are very useful with navigation of the trail. Longitude and latitude are availible for compass and navigation headers. However while this book is an excelent guide, it does seem to be never-ending with the trails. There is always one after another. Although this is one of my favority hiking guides. The philosophy of the book states, "The basic goal of this edition is to provide the hiker with a comprehensive list of available hiking areas and trails". This book is still not limited to trails alone, it shows helpful places to camp, and to restock supplies. This book was written with the help of the Keystone Trails Association which is an alliance of Pennsylvania organization's which share the belief of helping hikers. This book is an excelent guide.

A Helpful guide to hikes along the Appalation Trail in Maine. The guide gives general information as well as specific information about the trail. Each hike includes specific places, distances, where to find a lean-to, and water.