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 Exploring the intertwined histories of race, labor, and community in the American South.

Under the leadership of Gary M. Fink and Merl E. Reed, Georgia State University hosts the Southern Labor Studies Conferences approximately every two years. The conferences have yielded two previous volumes, published in 1977 and 1981, and this volume, which contains selected papers from the seventh conference held in 1991.

As evidence by the quality of these essays, the field of southern labor history has come into its own. Research interest is peaking: the practitioners are younger scholars, and much of their work emphasizes the new social and political history. While the topics covered in this volume usually reflect that methodology, their chronology ranges from the antebellum period to the 1970s, suggesting the variety of sources and changing research approaches that can be used in rendering new meaning to the past. Although the subject of gender was generally a minor theme in these sessions, work now being done leaves no doubt that at some future conference gender will attract a commanding amount of attention.

In introducing and describing their respective areas, the associate editors, Robert H. Zieger (textile workers), Joe W. Trotter (African Americans), and Clifford Kuhn (labor politics), have provided a rich historiographical background.

The essays in this volume will enlighten the reader on many important aspects of the history of southern labor, and they will also raise new questions to be explained by other scholars and future conferences.

Essays by many of the foremost experts on Galileo offer an interdisciplinary approach to the legendary scientist’s correspondence.

The Tuscan mathematician, physicist, and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) is one of history’s most iconic and controversial figures. Letters form the backbone of what one early Galileo scholar called the “private Galileo,” and his correspondence is indeed a record of his family and friendships; his intellectual evolution; his professional interactions with other scientific figures; and his relations with patrons, brokers, and publishers. Last, but hardly least, his letters are a unique cultural artifact of Galileo the writer and master of vernacular prose. 

Galileo’s correspondence crossed Europe in public mail pouches, through diplomatic messengers, and was written in code. Today, there are 3,272 surviving letters to or from Galileo and his many friends, family members, disciples, and rivals across Europe. This volume examines these letters as an essential aspect of Galileo’s personal and scientific career. They are what the editors call his “experiments in friendship,” which enabled, abetted, and often served as early drafts of the theories in his published works. This collaborative volume brings together different approaches, case studies, and forms of expertise—historical and literary, intellectual and material, archival and digital. It is a must-read for all Galileo enthusiasts and anyone interested in how to make the most of a rich record of correspondence.

Rock Climbing in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge documents, for the first time, fifty years of oral history from this famous climbing community. Through extensive interviews, Maples reconstructs the growth of rock climbing in the region—including a twice-failed dam project, mysterious first routes, unauthorized sport-route growth on public lands, and a controversial archaeological dig. The book details five decades of collaborations to secure ongoing access to some of the world’s most beautiful and technically demanding routes and the challenges along the way.

More than a recounting of the past, however, Rock Climbing in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge uses the region’s extraordinary history to argue that climbing has the potential to be a valuable source of sustainable economic activity in rural areas throughout Appalachia today and in the years to come. The book concludes by offering policy recommendations and lessons learned about building beneficial partnerships among climbers, local communities, and public land managers to encourage community development and ecotourism alongside preservation.

Roofless critically examines homelessness and responses to it in the United States through the growing practice of forming tent camps. Karen A. Snedker and Jennifer McKinney position Seattle's "Tent City 3," (the US city with the third-largest homeless population), as an organizational model for other local governments to consider implementing in addressing their homelessness crises. Snedker and McKinney document this tent city's development through a census they conducted from 2019 to 2020, though the efforts behind Tent City 3 have a history dating back two decades. Through such an examination, the authors reveal surprising points of view and outcomes, including grassroots partnerships between city agencies, nonprofits, religious organizations, and educational institutions. In the context of rising homelessness in the US, understanding and having insight into the residents' experience of sanctioned unsheltered homelessness, compared to instances of unsanctioned encampments, allows readers to acquire a complete, nuanced picture of tent-based homelessness. As such, Roofless provides valuable insight to audiences ranging from scholars of sociology and social work, policymakers, homelessness advocates, and politicians.