Redneck Heaven: Portrait of a Vanishing Culture [Paperback]

Bethany E. Bultman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1996

A five-year study of redneck culture brings readers from the deep South and New England fishing villages to Nashville and the rodeo circuit and is based on hundreds of interviews that include discussions with famous figures.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bethany Bultman presents Redneck Heaven: Portrait of a Vanishing Culture, one that she asserts is "much-maligned." She spent five years in "redneck" territory, trying to discover who these people are. "I met self-styled rednecks from every part of America, from Seattle to the Southwest to the Deep South to Maine and everywhere in between." She concludes that rednecks are probably the descendants of Celts who came to the new world from the 17th century on. Bultman discusses values, traditions, religious conviction, politics, style and cuisine. She lists redneck likes and dislikes, including tastes in music, dress, decor and especially food. Who could resist the recipes for deep-fried turkey (heat oil "until a wooden match ignites on contact"), Coca-Cola roast and the essential Spam treats? And the desserts are even better.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (November 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055337804X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553378047
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,799,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Need-to-know Americana, May 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Redneck Heaven: Portrait of a Vanishing Culture (Paperback)

"Redneck Heaven" is a wonderful, enlightening look at an often misunderstood major segment of our culture. Ms. Bultman does us a great deed in separating Rednecks from "trailer trash" and helping us see that more of us are rednecks than we might want to admit. After reading this book, I was quick to realize how many people could be defined by the information provided (one of the first people I recognized as a true redneck was Charlton Heston). Congratulations to Bultman for elevating this segment of our society from the stigma it undeservingly suffered for so long.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Topic Marred by Serious Flaws, June 21, 1999

By 

Larkin Vonalt ([e-mail]) (Livingston, Montana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Redneck Heaven: Portrait of a Vanishing Culture (Paperback)

Redneck Heaven was a disappointing hodge-podge on the sector of the American population that consider themselves "rednecks." Though it promises to deliver the goods, it consistently falls short, and the blame for this is as much the editor's as the author's.

Bultman's chief theme here is that American rednecks are a continuation of ancient Celtic tribes. While it's an interesting theory, Bultman doesn't seem to have the scholarship to back it up. Nevertheless, she frequently returns to it.By the end of the book, the reader is sorely tired of this deathless refrain.

Credibility is further strained by numerous fact errors (Boadicea, the warrior queen of the British tribe, the Iceni, is not spelled Boudicae and not pronounced Boodika, as the author instructs, "I'm a W-O-M-A-N" was popularized by Peggy Lee in the fifties and not Maria Muldaur in the seventies, calves do have hooves when they are born . . .) The problem with these sorts of errors is that they cast a pall on the authority Redneck Heaven purports to have. The much vaunted "interviews with famous rednecks" appear only in the first few chapters and come across as name dropping.

Finally, the production values of Redneck Heaven are decidedly substandard. Pages are bound out of order, photographs lack cutlines and sidebars are inserted in such a way that the reader has to stop and search to keep his place in the text.

This is a fascinating subject and Ms. Bultman has a wealth of wonderful material here. It's a real letdown that it wasn't a better-organized, better-produced and thoroughly fact-checked book. What a worthy title it would have been.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars redneck heaven is a heaven to read, March 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Redneck Heaven: Portrait of a Vanishing Culture (Paperback)

redneck heaven looks at our national celt vs anglo saxon cultural contradictions. why are we obsessed with paula jones instead of looking hard at how the dow jones is screwing small town america? are the rednecks who fight our wars, make our jeans and harleys this society's villians or corporate america's victims? read this book and find out.