University of Georgia Press Blue Ridge Commons: Environmental Activism and Forest History in Western North Carolina (Environmental History and the American South)

Review Blue Ridge Commons makes a valuable contribution to the growing field of southern environmental history. . . . Anyone ever left deeply unsatisfied by the rhetorical dichotomy of 'jobs-versus-the-environment' will find great satisfaction in the framework of commons environmentalism and the new ways Newfont helps us understand. . .--Sarah Mittlefehldt "Journal of Southern History "Newfont's book is not just eye opening but very well written.--North Carolina Historical ReviewThe Blue Ridge forests, and the human communities they have sustained, have found in Kathryn Newfont an historian who deftly captures their cultural significance and environmental import. Blue Ridge Commons provides a close reading of local aspirations and needs, and suggests how what has happened in these particular mountains also has been manifest across the nation and globe. It is an inspired contribution to the writing of American environmental history.--Char Miller "author of Ground Work: Conservation in American Environmental Culture "Very well written and carefully researched, Blue Ridge Commons breaks new ground in Appalachian history and in our broader understanding of the politics of environmental movements. Newfont's central premise, the idea of commons environmentalism, is timely both for historians and for environmental activists, and her book will be recognized down the road, I believe, as a seminal publication that helped to change the way we understand Appalachian culture and its complex relationship to the land.--Ronald Eller "author of Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945 " Product Description In the late twentieth century, residents of the Blue Ridge mountains in western North Carolina fiercely resisted certain environmental efforts, even while launching aggressive initiatives of their own. Kathryn Newfont examines the environmental history of this region over the course of three hundred years, identifying what she calls commons environmentalism - a cultural strain of conservation in American history that has gone largely unexplored. About the Author <p>Kathryn Newfont is an associate professor of history and faculty chair for the Ramsey Center for Regional Studies at Mars Hill College. </p>