Burley: Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century

Burley: Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century. By Ann K. Ferrell. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2013. Pp. xv + 309, illustrations, foreword, a note on transcription, acknowledgments, introduction, conclusion, notes, bibliography, index. $50.00 cloth, $50 eBook.)During her fieldwork, Ann K. Ferrell set out to understand the tobacco farmer today in light of the huge shifts in public sentiment about tobacco in recent decades. Her goal was to document present-day farmers and their attitudes toward their crop during the transition away from tobacco production or towards diversification. The book blends ethnography, history, and rhetorical analysis, thereby placing current views on tobacco farming in their proper context. Ferrell, a folklorist, bases her presentation and analysis of the material on extensive ethnographic research, which she conducted from 2005 to 2008.After a summary of the history of tobacco in the United States and its beginnings in Kentucky, Ferrell divides her material into three sections. The first is an ethnography of tobacco production itself, including current practices and changes in those practices over time. Her description of each step of the process is thorough and rich, combining the story of her own field work experiences with a description of the typical burley tobacco year. Ferrell is careful to include her own perceptions as she began her fieldwork and her own role in the data she collected, in a conscious effort to emphasize her recognition that fieldwork cannot be objective. She also attempts to bring in a variety of voices and experiences in order to accurately depict the vast array of attitudes among tobacco farmers. In this section, the author includes helpful and illustrative photos; although at times more photos would facilitate the reader's comprehension of unfamiliar agricultural terms and concepts. Despite any slight weakness, this section is a valuable example of occupational folklore research and documentation.The second section of the book is a rhetorical history and analysis of attitudes towards tobacco and its shift from essential cash crop to symbol of heritage, followed by its disappearance altogether from public discourse and celebrations. In this section, Ferrell uses archived copies of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture newsletter. In the third section, she then combines the contexts of the first two sections of the book in order to analyze farmers' own responses to the changing meanings of tobacco in Kentucky. The message that tobacco production is still strong in Kentucky and that these farmers should not be forgotten or presumed gone dominates the last section. As Ferrell outlines farmers' struggles with media and mainstream folk perspectives on the evils of tobacco, the reader sympathizes and understands the tobacco farmers' plight as their world threatens to collapse and they struggle to adjust. …