Seekers of Scenery: Travel Writing from Southern Appalachia, 1840-1900.Seekers of Scenery: Travel Writing from Southern Appalachia, 1840-1900. Edited by Kevin E. O'Donnell and Helen Hollingsworth. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press The University of Tennessee Press (or UT Press), founded in 1940, is a university press that is part of the University of Tennessee. External link
abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 1-57233-278-6.) This collection of travel writings offers interesting firsthand glimpses into the economic, social, and political forces that transformed the people and landscape of southern Appalachia in the nineteenth century. The eighteen travel articles contained in this book span the period from 1840 to 1900, a critical time in the history of the southern highlands The Southern Highlands could refer to:
n. 1. A fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person's responses to and interpretations of situations. 2. An inclination or a habit. of the region and the nation. In an effort to develop an anthology of Appalachian travel writings, Helen Hollingsworth acquired a voluminous collection of travel articles from nineteenth-century periodicals The periodical press flourished in the nineteenth century: the Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals will eventually list over 100,000 titles. Nineteenth-century periodicals have been the focus of extensive indexing efforts, such as that of the Wellesley Index to . From her collection, the editors selected the articles in this book from ten different magazines, ranging from popular national publications such as Harper's Monthly and the Atlantic Monthly to smaller circulation periodicals such as Appalachia and Lakeside Monthly. The articles feature a wide range of authors, from such well-known writers as Charles Dudley Warner and W. E. B. Du Bois Noun 1. W. E. B. Du Bois - United States civil rights leader and political activist who campaigned for equality for Black Americans (1868-1963) Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois to more obscure authors such as Margaret Johann and Jehu Lewis. Collectively, these travel writings provide an intimate, and sometimes distorted, portrait of the people and landscape. Among the interesting themes in these writings are personal interactions with diverse mountain residents, accounts of industrialization industrialization Process of converting to a socioeconomic order in which industry is dominant. The changes that took place in Britain during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and 19th century led the way for the early industrializing nations of western Europe and , and descriptions of old-growth forests, beautiful vistas, and waterfalls that have since been destroyed. Not only do these articles present a historical perspective, but they also shed light on the development of travel writing as a literary genre Noun 1. literary genre - a style of expressing yourself in writing writing style, genre drama - the literary genre of works intended for the theater prose - ordinary writing as distinguished from verse . One of the strongest features of this book is Kevin E. O'Donnell's introduction, which provides a historical context for the collection. O'Donnell skillfully traces the evolution of nineteenth-century travel writings from Appalachia against the backdrop of larger trends in regional and national history. In doing so, O'Donnell's essay and subsequent editorial notes enhance the collection immeasurably by demonstrating the importance of these travel writings as both a documentary source and a window to understanding the shifting attitudes in the region and the nation. Although written primarily for an academic audience, the book is organized to correspond with a driving tour of southern Appalachia. There are a few questionable selections, but southern and Appalachian historians will appreciate these unedited firsthand travel accounts of a region in transition. Furthermore, this volume serves as a useful contribution to the growing body of literature on the history of tourism in the South. C. BRENDEN MARTIN Middle Tennessee State University Middle Tennessee State University (founded September 11, 1911, and commonly abbreviated as MTSU) is an American university located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. |
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