{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03032979976442874, 'fraction_numerical': 0.015901060070671377, 'mean_word_length': 5.142857142857143, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Appalachian Images in Folk and Popular Culture (review)

What can one say about a collection of magazine articles that were published between 1859 and 1987, only one of which has appeared in a book before? Many of these articles are from fairly prominent journals, and several are even rather famous and have been commented upon frequently. Surely this collection is useful, especially for folklorists. The volume is, after all, a part of the American Material Culture and Folklife series edited by Simon J. Bronner. And the editor of this volume is W.K. McNeil, a well-known folklorist formerly with the Smithsonian Institution, and presently with the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas. But these articles will neither put past misunderstandings and stereotypes to rest, nor are they really "lost and forgotten articles," as the preface and dust jacket claim. In fact, most of the earlier articles have been in part responsible for many of the misunderstandings about the region. Though these articles include important information about nineteenth century folk life in the region, they also include the damaging stereotypes about moonshining, feuding, and characterizations of Appalachians as primitives who have lost civilization. Surely the editor could have chosen articles that would not have repeated and reinforced so many of the abrasive stereotypes that have plagued Appalachian Studies. I am especially troubled by Will Wallace Harney's Lippincott magazine article of 1873, James Lane Allen's Harper's magazine article of 1886, Francis Linde' s early article on moonshining in Lippincott' s in 1896, and John Fox Jr.'s, Scribner's magazine article of 1901. Furthermore, more sensitive Appalachian scholars will be further offended by the inclusion of William G. Frost's famous 1899 Atlantic Monthly article, and Ellen Churchill Semple's 1901 article in the Geographical Journal on the debilitating effects of geography on the Appalachian people. By far the best part of this volume is McNeil's "Introduction" and his brief comments on each of the selected articles. In the introduction McNeil insightfully evaluates the classis studies of Emma Bell Miles (Our Southern Highlanders, 1913), Allen Eaton (Handicrafts of the Southern Mountains, 1937), Thomas R. Ford (The Southern Appalachian Region: A Survey, 1962), Elliot Wigginton's Foxfire series, Henry D. Shapiro (Appalachia on Our Mind, 1978), and David Whisnant (All That Is Native and Fine, 1983), among others. In evaluating such works, all books, McNeil apparently concludes that their revisions and insights need not be played-off against the barrage of stereotypes that are included in so many of the articles featured. McNeil could, for example, have done us a real service if he had contrasted Emma Bell Miles' clear and non-judgmental presentation, with several of these "loaded" literary evaluations of mountain life. One very interesting evaluation McNeil gives in his excellent introduction is his comparison of Emma Bell Miles and Horace Kephart. McNeil sees Miles as a writer who has presented the life of Appalachian women particularly well, while Kephart gave his attention to Appalachian men most skillfully. Both of these writers McNeil sees as "outsiders." (p. 36). Considering the high regard most Appalachian scholars give to Emma Bell Miles and the rather low regard they have for Kephart, the fact