Yesterday in the Hills recalls life in North Georgia from the 1890s until World War II and records vanished and vanishing folkways of the region. Here is folklore at its best—seen from the inside and mediated through the heart. Yesterday in the Hills is built upon the bedrock of experience and memory, but its sharply drawn characters and beautifully proportioned narrative transcend reminiscence and realistically depict hill-country life as it once was. “Authentic, flavorful chapters about old-time hill people of North Georgia, their backbreaking field work, their song and play, their courtship, their neighborly exchange of help with the chores, their homemade remedies for illness and homemade practically everything else, their humor and their individuality.”—Publishers Weekly “A gentle, humorous personal recollection of real people and the way they lived and worked.”—Celestine Sibley

Yesterday in the Hills recalls life in North Georgia from the 1890s until World War II and records vanished and vanishing folkways of the region. Here is folklore at its best--seen from the inside and mediated though the heart. Yesterday in the Hills is built upon the bedrock of experience and memory, but its sharply drawn characters and beautifully proportioned narrative transcend reminiscence and realistically depict hill country life as it once was.

1937 dawned over the golden sun kissed lands of Spain, upon a divided country and a vicious and bloody Civil War. The war had, originally, begun as a simple military coup, back in mid-July of the previous year. At first it looked as though it would carry the day, but due to the early up-rising in the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, the timing of the revolt on the mainland was thrown into disarray, and due to this certain areas didn’t commence their planned revolts at the designated time. In particular, the major cities of Barcelona and Madrid were both critically effected by the timing of these events, and the whole of the 18th July was spent in inactivity. It was this delay, to the originally planned timetable, that enabled the republican government, but more importantly, especially in Barcelona, the unions and other forces on the left, to organise some sort of resistance. It was this fact, which meant that they were able to defeat the rebellion in these, and several other vital towns and cities. By the end of the 20th July, after the first two days of the rebellion, and bitter fighting throughout the length and breadth of the country, the battle lines had been drawn, and Spain was a nation split into two basic zones. The areas that remained loyal, under the control of the government, and the rest of Spain, which was now under the command of the rebel’s or nationalist’s as they were to become known.

What is the "something in these hills" that ties mountain families to family land in the southern Appalachians? This ethnographic examination challenges contemporary theory and explores two interrelated themes: the duality of the southern Appalachians as both a menacing and majestic landscape and the emotional relationship to family land characteristic of long-term residents of these mountains. To most outsiders, the area conjures images of a beautiful yet dangerous place, typified by the movie Deliverance. To long-term residents, these mountains have a fundamental emotional hold so powerful that many mourn the sale or loss of family land as if it were a deceased relative. How can the same geographical space be both? Using a carefully crafted cultural lens, John M. Coggeshall explains how family land anthropomorphizes, metaphorically becoming another member of kin groups. He establishes that this emotional sense of place existed prior to recent land losses, contrary to some contemporary scholars. Utilizing the voices and perspectives of long-term residents, the book provides readers with a more fundamental understanding of the "something in these hills" that holds people in place.

Daily journals recount a scientific expedition's five-month trek into the Black Hills of the Dakotas to determine if rumors of gold were true, which the author describes as the most delightful summer of my life. He describes the natural landscape and its wildlife, eccentric characters, and politic

On the Hills of God describes the year-long journey of a boy becoming a man, while all that he has known crumbles to ashes. The novel has been translated into German and Arabic and won the PEN Oakland Award for literary excellence. Critic Ishmael Reed calls it “a monumental book.” This revised edition includes a new introduction. When we first encounter Palestinian Yousif Safi in June 1947, he is filled with hopes for his education abroad to study law, and with daydreams of his first love, the beautiful Salwa. But as the future of Palestine begins to look bleak due to the pressure on the United Nations from the international Zionist movement, Yousif is frustrated by his fellow Arabs' inability to thwart the Zionist encroachment and by his own inability to prevent the impending marriage of Salwa to an older suitor chosen by her parents. As Palestinians face the imminent establishment of Israel, Yousif resolves to face his own responsibilities of manhood. Despite the monumental odds against him, Yousif vows to win back both his loves -- Salwa and Palestine -- and create his world anew.