This book aptly demonstrates how good a choice Appalachian State made in hiring Billy Schumann as the Director of their Appalachian programs. He has clearly energized the next generation of Appalachian scholars as demonstrated by the fact that, of the 24 contributors to this collection of essays, I only know Billy and Anita Puckett. This is not the old guard. Three contributors are doctoral students. What is even more impressive is that Billy has exemplified, in this volume, the values that the best of the old guard hopes will infuse the next generation. The book has four parts. It starts with an acknowledgement of “Race, Ethnicity, and Gender” and goes through “Language, Rhetoric, and Literacy” right into “Economy and Environment” and concludes with “Engagement.” Wow!
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2016. 310 pages. Hardback with pictorial cover.