Reading Appalachia from Left to Right: Conservatives and the 1974 Kanawha County Textbook Controversy
"The Kanawha County, West Virginia, textbook controversy remains a fascinating moment in the evolution of family values politics. Carol Mason trenchantly excavates the history and analyzes the individuals, groups, interests, ideologies, and relationships at the heart of the protest. In doing so she tells the story of the birth of the New Right in all its complexity. Mason expertly draws on interdisciplinary literatures in ethnic, women's, and American studies for this significant contribution to research on cultural politics and the culture wars."—Cynthia Burack, author ofSin, Sex, and Democracy: Antigay Rhetoric and the Christian Right"In this captivating book, the Kanawha County textbook war of 1974 becomes a pivotal saga in the rise of the New Right because of the longstanding national need to strip-mine the Appalachian region for its myths and moral lessons. Cutting through the liberal and conservative discourses that have simultaneously romanticized and demonized the poor whites of Appalachia, Carol Mason convincingly portrays the textbook protests as a 'discursive crossroads' that cast West Virginia's working class as both backward and modern, as violent racists and innocent victims, and ultimately as Christian warriors battling to save the American soul."—Matthew D. Lassiter, University of Michigan, author ofThe Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South"Reading Appalachia from Left to Rightis an extremely interesting, informative, and important book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and learned much from doing so. Carol Mason advances new interpretations of that famous conflict that not only clarify the immediate community context but also shed light on how events in Kanawha helped to set the stage for subsequent New Right and Christian-based cultural politics."—Dwight Billings, University of Kentucky, coauthor, with Kathleen Blee, ofThe Road to Poverty: The Making of Wealth and Hardship in Appalachia