They Live on the Land
LC Class | HN79 .S85T47 1993 (reprint) |
They Live on the Land: Life in an Open Country Southern Community is a social study of an Alabama rural community written by social scientists
Summary
The book covers the origins, civic and economic activities, health and welfare, and religious, recreational, and educational lives of the people of a rural Alabama community that the authors called "Upland Bend".[1] "Upland Bend" was a pseudonym for the Alabama community of Gorgas in Tuscaloosa County.[2]
The book is based on interviews with 196 of the 209 families in Gorgas.[3] The work highlighted racial discrimination in the community, as well as economic deprivation and social and political disaffection.[2][3] The period in which the study took place overlapped with the Great Depression.[4]
Reception
Contemporary reviews were generally positive. A review in
Retrospective reviews of the book were also positive. Writing in 2004, Professor Wayne Flynt of Auburn University described the book as "a revealing snapshot of rural Alabama during the 1930s".[2] A 1993 review of the Alabama Classics reprint of the book in The Anniston Star described the book as "a valuable case study that will serve as a permanent record" and as a "well-researched work".[7] Writing the foreword to the 1993 re-print, Clarence L. Mohr compared the book to the seminal depression-era sociological work Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.[4]
References
- ^ a b Agricultural Economics Literature, Volume 15, Issue 3. The Library. 1941. p. 247. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ ISBN 9780817314309. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ JSTOR 40367578. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ ISBN 0817305874. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
- doi:10.1086/457947. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- JSTOR 44645394. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ "THEY LIVE ON THE LAND: Life in an Open-Country Southern Community". The Anniston Star. 21 March 1993. p. 42. Retrieved 3 December 2020.