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Encyclopedia ofAppalachia. Edited by Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006. Pp. xxviii + 1,832, foreword, appreciation, acknowledgments, introduction, maps, photographs, illustrations, indices. $79.95 cloth); A Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region. Edited by Grace Toney Edwards, JoAnn Aust Asbury, and Ricky L. Cox. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006. Pp. xvi + 280, acknowledgments, introduction, photographs, chapter notes, chapter bibliographies, contributor list, index. $19.95 paper)
Reference works have never been in such demand as they are today, and we have seen a proliferation of them both in print and on line. State encyclopedias have been especially popular, with several just released - New York (Eisenstadt 2005), South Carolina (Edgar 2006), North Carolina (Powell 2006)- and many more are planned. Visits to the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture (Dillard 2006), for which I work, now top 100,000 a month. There is a great hunger for authoritative information on regional cultures, and publishers are working hard to fill that need.
The University of Tennessee Press has put forward two new reference works covering Appalachia - the massive Encyclopedia of Appalachia and the smaller Handbook to Appalachia. Both cover well this diverse region, breaking down stereotypes without turning a blind eye to the problems that beset Appalachia and its people. The long-time resident of Appalachia is just as likely to be enlightened by these books as is the outsider. The encyclopedia contains 2,000 entries organized into five major categories: "The Landscape," "The People," "Work and the Economy," "Cultural Traditions," and "Institutions." Each category is in turn broken down into sections headed up by introductory essays on the topic. "The People," for instance,...