What a pioneering book this is - both in oral history and in Black Appalachian History. Lynwood - he went by his middle name - Montell was a pioneer in the field of oral history. He has published 25 books that provide a wonderful feel for the Cumberland River watershed of Kentucky. He was professor of Folk Studies at Western Kentucky University from 1969 until 1999. This oral history work provides a history of the Coe Ridge settlement in Cumberland County, Kentucky. After emancipation, black people settled this ridge and remained there until the 1950s, when they were driven out primarily by revenue agents concerned with their role in providing moonshine to neighboring communities. ". . . a new and long needed departure in American historiography. . . . This is in every way an impressive book. It contains detailed accounts of the informants, tables of folklore motifs, genealogical charts, a prologue and epilogue explaining authoritatively the hypotheses of oral traditional history, and handsome photographs of the Coe Ridge area."--Richard M. Dorson.
New York: Harper Torchbooks/Harper and Row, a 1972 paperback reprint of a 1970 release. 289 pages with an Index, Bilbliography, and photos. Trade paperback.