Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, The

The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Edited by Carroll Van West. Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1998. xxxvi, 1194 pp. $49.95. ISBN 1-55853-599-3.

Inspired by Tennessee's bicentennial in 1996, The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture represents a collective effort sponsored by the Tennessee Historical Society. Containing more than 1,500 entries by 560 authors, this volume constitutes a comprehensive reference that combines different disciplines, perspectives, and approaches to history. Diverse authors and articles provide a balanced and comprehensive narrative on the Volunteer State's history and culture.

In her opening essay state historian Wilma Dykeman introduces "This Land Called Tennessee." Drawing from a half-century of study, she mentions monumental figures such as frontiersman Daniel Boone, land speculator Richard Henderson, the defiant Native American Dragging Canoe, and the early settlers of Nashville-James Robertson and John Donelson. Other personalities include James Agee, Andrew Jackson, Elvis Presley, the Vanderbilt Agrarians, and Frances ("Fanny") Wright. Dykeman also mentions the Grand Ole Opry, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the town of Oak Ridge, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and numerous utopian societies. From her perspective antebellum Tennessee linked East and West; the present-day state serves as a borderland between yesterday and tomorrow.

General articles address topics such as agriculture, architecture, art, colleges and universities, Civil War battlefields, Native American tribes, conservation, industry, newspapers, law, literature, medicine, music, railroads, religion, and slavery. Biographical sketches include Roy Acuff, Davy Crockett, W. E. B. Du Bois, Alex Haley, Casey Jones, Minnie Pearl, Diane Nash, Buford Pusser, Wilma Rudolph, Sequoyah, Ernest Tubb, Robert Penn Warren, and Alvin York. All ninety-five counties and every city with a population greater than fifty thousand receive their due. Entries for Beale Street, the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Clingman's Dome, Dollywood, Graceland, Jack Daniels, Lookout Mountain, the Peabody Hotel, and Ruby Falls all read like a travel guide. Unfortunately, two key Tennessee attractions-the Moon Pie and Rock City-are conspicuously absent, but they do rate separate listings in the index. Other serendipitous topics add a unique flavor to the overall product: marbles competitions, Melungeons, Milky Way Farm, moonshine, POW camps in World War II, prehistoric cave art, shotgun houses, and sorghum making.

Editor-in-Chief Carroll Van West contends that five basic ideas-duty, courage, faith, change, continuity-provide Tennesseans with a "sense of place." This shared place consists of different meanings created by many people and relates a timeless account of hope, determination, and inspiration balanced by failure, violence, and greed. He describes this encyclopedia as "a rich tapestry of real people, places, and events" (p. xxiii) that helps citizens of Tennessee to know who they are and where they are going.

The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture complements other related works such as The Encyclopedia of Southern History (Baton Rouge, 1979), Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (Chapel Hill, 1989), Encyclopedia of Southern Literature (Santa Barbara, 1997), and 1001 Things Everyone Should Know about the South (New York, 1996). Alabama needs a reference work that will celebrate its heritage in similar fashion, but at this writing the state's bicentennial is too far away to serve as a motivating factor. Public interest in Alabama history is strong, however, as attested by the overwhelming response to the state archives' Alabama Studies Symposium. Perhaps Tennessee's example will inspire various historical groups to combine their efforts to create an Alabama encyclopedia as we enter a new century and a new millennium.

JAMES SANDERS DAY

University of Montevallo

Copyright University of Alabama Press Jan 2001
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