The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Women: Stories of Landscape and Community in the Mountain South ed. by Kami Ahrens (review)

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• The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Women: Stories of Landscape and Community in the Mountain South ed. by Kami Ahrens
• Penny Messinger

The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Women: Stories of Landscape and Community in the Mountain South. Edited by Kami Ahrens. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2023. Pp. xiv, 268. Paper, $25.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-7003-4; cloth, $99.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-7002-7.)

Launched in 1966 in Rabun Gap, Georgia, Foxfire magazine was intended to foster intergenerational connections between high school students and older [End Page 656] community members, to preserve folkways, and to record traditional practices that were vanishing. Many people encountered Appalachia through Foxfire and continue to view the region through its lens. This book presents the stories of twenty-one women interviewed for the Foxfire project over the past five decades. The accounts are arranged chronologically, beginning with interviewees born around the turn of the twentieth century and continuing through the youngest, born in 1988. While the initial focus of Foxfire was on elderly people, its later profiles are of much younger women. Many of the women profiled in this volume were interviewed multiple times, and the contents of these interviews were combined and edited into shorter versions (ten to fifteen pages each) that highlight specific topics, issues, and time periods, while also using the women’s own words to convey their individual stories. The major themes of this volume include the transformation of land use and the changes in mountain communities over more than a century; economic hardship; the legacies of enslavement and racism; Cherokee and Catawba perspectives; growing national and global connections; women’s relationship to the land and their role in agriculture and food preparation; and growing economic disparities in the area. Individual accounts also focus on such topics as weaving, hunting, pottery-making, herbalism and healing, religion, segregation, trauma, and migration.

The greatest strength of the book is its demonstration of the diversity of women’s identities and experiences, which challenges some of the most persistent stereotypes about Appalachian women. The profiles include a breadth of experiences and ethnicities. There are accounts by twelve white, four Black, two Cherokee, one Catawba, and two immigrant women, who together represent a wide variety of socioeconomic statuses and experiences. Highlighting the changing roles and occupations of women in the region is another through-line in the book. While earlier accounts foreground traditional expectations and restrictions related to marriage, child-rearing, and household management facing women, accounts from the recent past demonstrate the range of women’s roles and occupations.

The teenage interviewers are an elusive presence in this volume. It is clear that the early interviews followed a standard script, with some questions presented in a leading way (for example, women were asked whether the past or present was better). Photos from the interviews help humanize the women profiled in the book and reveal traces of the young interviewers. From the beginning, part of Foxfire’s purpose was focused on the teenage residents of Rabun Gap: what impact did these interactions have upon them? This question is answered in part by the profile of Kaye Carver Collins, who has had a continuing relationship with Foxfire since her teens. The particular generational similarities of the early interviews does evoke a feeling of nostalgia, which is often associated with Foxfire’s early work, perhaps because of its focus on vanishing traditions.

Like many books about Appalachia, the title promises a wide scope but actually focuses on a much smaller area, primarily the mountains of north Georgia. There are thirteen profiles from Georgia, six from North Carolina, and one each from South Carolina and Virginia. While some of the experiences and issues detailed in these accounts are likely generalizable to other [End Page 657] parts of Appalachia, other issues are less so. Despite the title, this book does not claim to be comprehensive in its portrayal of Appalachian women but rather to provide an introduction. The individual accounts in this book do provide an accessible introduction to many dimensions of Appalachian women’s lives over the past century.

Penny Messinger Daemen University Copyright © 2024 The Southern Historical Association ...