Kentucky's 120 Counties: A Postcard Album (1900-1925) gives viewers a front-row seat into the past that enables them to see, for the first time, people, places, and events during a remarkable period in the state's history. Patrons purchased postcards at local drugstores, dry goods establishments, and country stores to catch a glimpse of their hometowns in postcard format. Postcards also portrayed neighboring communities, rural scenes, and people engaging in both work and play. In a time before photojournalism, postcards provided something that newspapers of the time could not; postcards put a face on the news and on the world itself.A 1908 postcard of William Jennings Bryan speaking in Lebanon, Kentucky, sold like hotcakes. In Leitchfield, a local photographer took his camera to the Grayson County Fair and leaned over the rail to capture an electrifying image of a jockey on his horse, barreling down the track with a whip between his teeth.Such spectacular moments and glimpses of everyday life form the heart of this book. Some images provide the only visual records of early communities and their railroad depots, grist mills, country stores, and churches. Other photos depict anglers fishing for "green bass" in Kinniconick, grandiose hotels erected beside rural springs, a man hunting quail in Salem, and converts being baptized in the flood waters of the Ohio River.This book is a panoramic view of the Bluegrass State and America in the early 1900s. Look into the lives and the eyes of the people, and you might just see your own hopes, dreams, failures, and successes come into focus.

Gary West traveled every corner of Kentucky to assemble this collection of must-see attractions in the Bluegrass State.

The first comprehensive atlas of the state published in over 20 years, the Atlas of Kentucky brings together a wealth of information on the geography, industry, economy, development, and people of the Commonwealth. Includes over 600 maps and 200 color illustrations. Richard Ulack, professor and former chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky and former State Geographer, is author of Atlas of Southeast Asia and co-editor of Lexington and Kentucky's Inner Bluegrass Region . Kentucky State Geographer Karl Raitz, professor and current chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky, is the editor of The National Road and co-author of Appalachia: A Gegional Geography . Gyula Pauer, former director of the Center for Cartography and Geographic Information at the University of Kentucky, has served as cartographer for numerous publications, including Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the U.S. Congress and The Himalayan Kingdoms.

The relationship between a town and its local institutions of higher education is often fraught with turmoil. The complicated tensions between the identity of a city and the character of a university can challenge both communities. Lexington, Kentucky, displays these characteristic conflicts, with two historic educational institutions within its city limits: Transylvania University, the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains, and the University of Kentucky, formerly “State College.” An investigative cultural history of the town that called itself “The Athens of the West,” Taking the Town: Collegiate and Community Culture in Lexington, Kentucky, 1880–1917 depicts the origins and development of this relationship at the turn of the twentieth century. Lexington’s location in the upper South makes it a rich region for examination. Despite a history of turmoil and violence, Lexington’s universities serve as catalysts for change. Until the publication of this book, Lexington was still characterized by academic interpretations that largely consider Southern intellectual life an oxymoron. Kolan Thomas Morelock illuminates how intellectual life flourished in Lexington from the period following Reconstruction to the nation’s entry into the First World War. Drawing from local newspapers and other primary sources from around the region, Morelock offers a comprehensive look at early town-gown dynamics in a city of contradictions. He illuminates Lexington’s identity by investigating the lives of some influential personalities from the era, including Margaret Preston and Joseph Tanner. Focusing on literary societies and dramatic clubs, the author inspects the impact of social and educational university organizations on the town’s popular culture from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era. Morelock’s work is an enlightening analysis of the intersection between student and citizen intellectual life in the Bluegrass city during an era of profound change and progress. Taking the Town explores an overlooked aspect of Lexington’s history during a time in which the city was establishing its cultural and intellectual identity.

The Kentucky Encyclopedia's 2,000-plus entries are the work of more than five hundred writers. Their subjects reflect all areas of the commonwealth and span the time from prehistoric settlement to today's headlines, recording Kentuckians' achievements in art, architecture, business, education, politics, religion, science, and sports. Biographical sketches portray all of Kentucky's governors and U.S. senators, as well as note congressmen and state and local politicians. Kentucky's impact on the national scene is registered in the lives of such figures as Carry Nation, Henry Clay, Louis Brandeis, and Alben Barkley. The commonwealth's high range from writers Harriette Arnow and Jesse Stuart, reformers Laura Clay and Mary Breckinridge, and civil rights leaders Whitney Young, Jr., and Georgia Powers, to sports figures Muhammad Ali and Adolph Rupp and entertainers Loretta Lynn, Merle Travis, and the Everly Brothers. Entries describe each county and county seat and each community with a population above 2,500. Broad overview articles examine such topics as agriculture, segregation, transportation, literature, and folklife. Frequently misunderstood aspects of Kentucky's history and culture are clarified and popular misconceptions corrected. The facts on such subjects as mint juleps, Fort Knox, Boone's coonskin cap, the Kentucky hot brown, and Morgan's Raiders will settle many an argument. For both the researcher and the more casual reader, this collection of facts and fancies about Kentucky and Kentuckians will be an invaluable resource.

The South has always been one of the most distinctive regions of the United States, with its own set of traditions and a turbulent history. Although often associated with cotton, hearty food, and rich dialects, the South is also noted for its strong sense of religion, which has significantly shaped its history. Dramatic political, social, and economic events have often shaped the development of southern religion, making the nuanced dissection of the religious history of the region a difficult undertaking. For instance, segregation and the subsequent civil rights movement profoundly affected churches in the South as they sought to mesh the tenets of their faith with the prevailing culture. Editors Walter H. Conser and Rodger M. Payne and the bookÕs contributors place their work firmly in the trend of modern studies of southern religion that analyze cultural changes to gain a better understanding of religionÕs place in southern culture now and in the future. Southern Crossroads: Perspectives on Religion and Culture takes a broad, interdisciplinary approach that explores the intersection of religion and various aspects of southern life. The volume is organized into three sections, such as ÒReligious Aspects of Southern Culture,Ó that deal with a variety of topics, including food, art, literature, violence, ritual, shrines, music, and interactions among religious groups. The authors survey many combinations of religion and culture, with discussions ranging from the effect of Elvis PresleyÕs music on southern spirituality to yard shrines in Miami to the archaeological record of African American slave religion. The book explores the experiences of immigrant religious groups in the South, also dealing with the reactions of native southerners to the groups arriving in the region. The authors discuss the emergence of religious and cultural acceptance, as well as some of the apparent resistance to this development, as they explore the experiences of Buddhist Americans in the South and Jewish foodways. Southern Crossroads also looks at distinct markers of religious identity and the role they play in gender, politics, ritual, and violence. The authors address issues such as the role of women in Southern Baptist churches and the religious overtones of lynching, with its themes of blood sacrifice and atonement. Southern Crossroads offers valuable insights into how southern religion is studied and how people and congregations evolve and adapt in an age of constant cultural change.

Presents the history, geography, people, politics and government, economy, social life and customs, state events and attractions, and notable people of Kentucky.