Customer Reviews

Voices of the Apalachicola (Florida History and Culture)

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Voices is a rich, moving account of the people who have lived in and around the apalachicola river their whole lives - and how that river is dying. The chapters deal with fishing, logging, damming, sharecropping, etc., and are broken up into sections, usually 6 to 10 pages in length, with each section focusing on the story of a different person. These oral histories are just that - oral histories. The writing is verbatim - sometimes the people trail off, or don't quite make sense, or don't entirely finish telling you about a subject, but that is what makes the book so great - it's real. Just like listening to your grandparents tell a story; you may not get all the details, but what does come through is great. There are a variety of sources from Native Americans to catfish trappers to engineers to steamboat captains to loggers - but all their stories lead up to one message, the river is drying up, and the flora and fauna are dying, a result of Atlanta's need for water, developers, and poor choices made by the government and the corps of engineers. But its not a depressing book, as there are many heartfelt stories of humor, wit and the tenacity of the human spirit. These stories and this book are great!

Forty years ago, author Gloria Jahoda characterized the Sunshine State's panhandle as "The Other Florida." This was--and to some extent still is--the off-the-beaten track part of the state where residents have long viewed their scrub oak and pine forests, salt marshes, rivers, sinkholes, barrier islands and coastline with a very utilitarian eye. The stories in Faith Eidse's oral history of the Apalachicola River system remind me of Jahoda's book, for they are not about the Florida of resorts, overly developed beaches and mega-tourist attractions, but of people who knew the land and the river as an integral part of their livelihood. Here are the fishermen, riverboat captains, botanists, road builders, turpentiners, beekeepers and loggers who have stories to tell about a world most people never knew existed. While I grew up in the other Florida very close to the Apalachicola River, these stories--supplemented by a historical narrative--have shown me that I missed more than I noticed when it came to the land and its people. These stories display for us the heart and soul of a great river, one that we might one day successfully destroy. For those who would protect the river and the surrounding ecosystem, this book is a must read. For everyone else, the voices make for exciting history and demand to be heard.