Art 668

Guidelines for the Graduate Book Review

Due: Due dates follow the topic of the book and are listed beside each book.
Value: Critical thinking, more in depth knowledge of a topic discussed in class, familiarity with "classics" in the field of Appalachian Arts, and 25% of your grade

Select a book from the list given below (one student to each book, please). Please e-mail me your choice--I will assign these on a first-come first-served basis. These books are all in the Camden Caroll Library.

In composing your review (approximately 6-7 typed, double spaced pages in length), please address the following:

What are the major themes/theories of this book? What evidence does the author offer in support of these theories?

What sources does the author utilize to draw his/her sense of Appalachian arts and cultural history?

What attitudes does this author seem to hold towards Appalachian peoples?

What particular time periods and aspects of Appalachian arts and cultural history does the author cover? What are some of the larger American historical issues or events that influenced Appalachian arts in these times?

What information about the region and its arts was new to you? Can you relate this information to any personal experiences or your own personal history?

How do you think the history presented in this book continues to influence arts in the Appalachian regions today?

What was your overall impression of the book?

Books To Be Reviewed in Order of Due Date:

Whisnant, David. All That is Native and Fine: The Politics of Culture. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1983. APP-KY 306.0574 W576a February 22

Barker, Garry. The Handicraft Revival. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1991. APP-KY 338.6425 B255h March 5

Becker, Jane S. Selling Tradition: Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998. APP-KY 974 B3955 and electronic books March 5

Philis Alvic. Weavers of the Southern Highland. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003. APP-KY 746.1409769 A475w March 5

Allen Eaton. Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands. New York: Dover, 1975 (originally 1937). APP-KY 745.5 E14h March 5

Julia S. Ardery. The Temptation: Edgar Tolson and the Genesis of Twentieth-Century Folk Art. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998. APP-KY BT654a April 5

Jerry W. Cotten. Light and Air: The Photography of Bayard Wootten. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998. 779.092 C851l April 6

Williamson, J. W. Hillbillyland: What the Movies Did to the Mountains and What the Mountains Did to the Movies. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995. APP-KY 791.43 W731h April 9