Customer Reviews

Apples On The Flood: Minority Discourse And Appalachia

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This is an excellent book for the layman and the expert. It continues the work done by Dr. Grady McWhiney and Dr. Forrest McDonald on the Celtic influence on the South, but is based on independent research. The original title was much better, Apples on the Flood: The Southern Mountain Experience. It is written from not just a historical point of view, but also uses mythology, literature, sociology, and psychology to make its point. For example, there is a fascinating section explaining the mythic undertones and symbolism of civilization and barbarism depicted in James Dickey's book "Deliverance." "Apples on the Flood" is the single best synthesis of the impact of the Celtic peoples, especially the Scots-Irish, on the Appalachians. The next step is to do for the whole South what Cunningham did for the Mountains. I heartily recommend this book to any who is tired of the old "evil" South histories. If you want to really understand the culture of Southerners and how it was influenced by the Scots-Irish, READ THIS BOOK!

The writing was hard to follow at times with complex sentences and not enough concrete examples to bring his academic points home. Yet the author pulls together ideas from many disciplines to make his point creatively and convincingly. I recognized myself and my experiences and observations growing up in Appalachia, in his articulations of identity (personal and collective) and peripheralization.

It is always disappointing when an author takes a fascinating subject and ruins it with his pseudo-intellectualism. It is not fun re-reading passages, trying to translate the convoluted wording that an author has chosen to obscure his work with. Mr. Cunningham has taken the fun out of his subject matter and made the reading of it a dreary chore.