Foxfire 7 (Paperback)

~ Inc. Foxfire Fund (Author), Paul Gillespie (Editor) "My father was a minister..." (more)
Key Phrases: annual singing convention, circuit overseer, first singing school, Holy Ghost, Jehovah's Witnesses, North Carolina (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Appalachian art, culture, and religious heritage is included in this volume.

From the Publisher

The seventh Foxfire volume presents traditions of mountain religious heritage, covering ministers, revivals, baptisms, gospel-singing, faith healing, camp meetings, snake handling, and more.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; Stated 1st edition (March 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385152442
• ISBN-13: 978-0385152440
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,218 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a disection of the snake handlers, August 4, 1999

By A Customer

Sunday mornings are always my favorite times to go driving. There is no one on the road and the church parking lots are filled. Religion is the backbone to the south; every small town has atleast 2 churches, if not more. Going through one town, I counted 5 different churches in one mile of each other.

I moved to South Carolina when I was a child. Both parents were "yankees" and had no use for the local Baptist women's group or the ARP pews. I never attended any summer Bible schools or belonged to any youth groups. My world consisted of playing on top of the chicken coop or climbing the large oak trees on our property. It wasn't until I reached high school until I realized how important religion is to this area. I opened my locker one day and there was a note inviting me to a revival. I decided that I would go. What a shock it was. At that point, I had only attended Catholic churches, and not very often at that. I had never heard people speak in tounges before, and when the person I was standing next to fell on the floor, I was ready to leave.

Several months later, I was in a bookstore and came across "Foxfire 7". I took it home and stayed up reading long into the night. I apperciated that it was broken into different sections, such as "Baptists", or "Methodists". The people who talked about their domonation were preachers and parsioners both. Each subject was fully researched and developed. I use the book still as a refrence.

I have carried on my parents lack of enthusium toward southern religion, but I will take the tracts given out by soon-to-be preachers at the local grocery store.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book About Religion in the South, August 22, 2004

By	B. Tate "FederalGuy" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In my opinion, this is the best popular culture book ever written about the importance of religion in the South. Whether you're a Southerner by birth, a researcher, or just curious, you'll find something of interest here.
I was born and raised in southern Virginia, and raised a Baptist, and the entire book rings true to what I saw and felt as I was growing up.
But more than that, I was surprised to learn how diverse that Southern religion traditions are. The book is broad-based, fair and even-handed, yet sympathetic. It's the best book I've ever read on the subject, and I've read a lot of 'em.
The chapter on snake-handling alone is worth the price of the book, and it serves as an good example of the "Foxfire" approach. Nothing I've ever read comes as close to putting you right in the middle of a snake-handling worship service. Like the rest of the "Foxfire" series, it does a great job of explaining and demystifying a piece of Southern culture.
The only complaint that I have is that some of the interviews are long-winded and dry in places, but that, too, is characteristic of us Southerners, when we get on a subject that's important to us.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YOU JUST CANNOT GO WRONG WITH THIS SERIES., June 11, 2007

By	D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Another absolute winner here! This work, Volume VII, is like the others. A wonderful history of how it was. In this day and age of having most needs meet and something for everyone on the Wal-mart shelf, we tend to forget just what it was like in our not too distant past. These books, the Foxfire books, brings to light skills, attitudes and a way of life that is all but forgotten. This is a good thing. When a people lose their history, they lose part of their soul. This work addresses many of the old forgotten skills and there is so much more. I loved the chapter on snake handling. Old time religions and various religious sects are a part of our heritage and we should not loose knowledge of them. The editors have done a wonderful job. They have made a very honest effort to replicate the dialect of those places and times and I feel that this is a big part of the charm of these books. I am old enough to have known many of the kinds of folks featured in these books, being only one generation past them, and have a great appreciation for what and how they did all the little things we take so for granted now. I might also suggest that you actually try some of the things mentioned in these volumes. It will give you even more of an appreciation for what they did, and hey, who knows, the skill you develope just might come in handy one of these days! Recommend this and the other Foxfire books highly.
D. Blankenship