The attractive website briefly introduces two of James Still's works, the novel /River of Earth/ and a collection of short stories /Sporty Creek/. The website homepage with its nicely washed out background of a Kentucky hill scene does too little to offer a path into the course readings and themes nor does it connect to the Appalachian region as a whole. We find almost no interactivity among the pages. Links that could associate with other texts in the course that deal with similar themes of homeplace, coal mining, disruption of family life, humor in the mountains, etc. are sorely neglected. No real close reading or textual work is done with the Still pieces themselves nor with the many course texts that expand on the richness embedded in Still's slender volumes. The innovative and interactive crossword puzzle might have been a clever way to link to content in other texts as well as to the contents of /River of Earth/. However, that gambit was reduced to only a memory quiz. In all, this site showed little intellectual effort and much evidence that most of the course materials had been ignored.

Some odd linkings : From homepage, for instance, when /Storming Heaven/ character Rosa’s passage refers to the sameness of towns in West Virginia, a link is made from West Virginia to a page on outmigration from the region. Similarly in a section on African American migration into the region a link from Huntington WV leads to outmigration page as well. If this is an effort to suggest Huntington as an Ohio River city is out of the Appalachians, that needs to be stated and discussed. In truth this city is part of the route into the deeper mountains as it is at the convergence of several rivers from the region that empty near there into the Ohio providing one of the oldest ways into as well as out of the mountains for native hunters, pioneers, barge workers, railroad builders, and coal extractors. On the plus side, a link from Rosa’s “where I go to live” on the home page leads logically to how women who come to and live in the region cope with their lives in coal towns, depicting miners wives and using Geisen’s study of women in the region as well as good references to Still’s Alpha as a miner’s wife in /River of Earth/ and Carrie Bishop as a preacher and miner’s wife elsewhere in /Storming Heaven/. Cross-linking from within the pages is rather weak, though the synopsis page shows productive effort in this line. See http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/borgia/synopsis.html and its links into African American migration.

The strength of this project lies in its careful analytical essays. While these well-resourced essays needed more visuals and links to pertinent pages within the website, they demonstrate a clear understanding of the business of coal mining and the dangers faced by those who came into the region to mine coal. The page on out migration brought to light a good source (Philliber 1981) that challenged the stereotype of Appalachian “ghettos in the cities.” The Migration into the region page informed readers of a commissioner on immigration in WV from as early as 1871. This good uncovering work helps make the site very useful to members of the course as well as to those beyond the scope of the classroom assignment. So too are the several useful links to depict mining and mine disasters. (See the bottom of the miners’ wives’ page: http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/borgia/minerswives.html In particular, note the photos by Stern taken in 50’s and 60’s in Harlan Co KY, under the links to Gallery of Photos. Also see the Coal Creek war that makes an historical Tennessee parallel to Storming Heaven’s subject of mine wars in WV.)

We learn a great deal from Manekin and Borgia’s essays and astute linkages to outside materials that go beyond the course materials set forth! Bravo!

Written analysis of Lee Smith’s novel /Oral History/ in this site shows keen understanding of the text, but little use of the hypertext medium to demonstrate the interconnectedness of the texts’ passages and promise. The homepage WPA photograph shows good connections to the early time period and, though later in actual date, shows the type of scene witnessed in Burlage’s arrival in Black Rock area where wagons and mules are more common and roads are desperately poor.

Fine work on the analysis of the themes, and the selected critical essays and histories makes the site a good supplement for anyone reading /Oral History /or anyone interested in development/modernization, fatalism , faith and religion. The emphasis on roads and modernity as one way of opening up the mountains shows fruitful work. Opening them up to extractive industry, to “outsider” interests should also be discussed as another interpretation of Burlage’s perceptions. His return to the mountain to photograph but not interact with Dory (and his unknown children behind a screen door) might have made a good contrast to the type of seeing Burlage does in the passage selected. Some connections to other course texts do not seem relevant to the passage and could better be linked to discussions and analyses of the critical essays. More pictorial examples would enhance the site.

Failure to use productive linking from the selected passage defeats the purpose of the hypertextual, visual, and interactive assignment and makes it less likely anyone happening on the site would find much of Andrus’ well-written and well-researched material. The depth undertaken in the essays mitigates the linear preference that resulted in a near-refusal to use a more open approach to represent the wealth of thinking that can go on in association with a well-written passage such as that Smith provides in Richard Burlage’s diary entry. Fine sourcing and a few good connections to other course texts also show Andrus’ intellect at work.

This highly visual and very interactive website clearly shows the composers have used the assignment to articulate a firm understanding of the dangerous religious practices documented in Covington’s /Salvation on Sand Mountain/ and how they associate these with course texts and themes/. /.For example, the author’s penchant for danger (seen in his early years documenting war in El Salvador) is linked not only to his decision to handle serpents himself, but also to course text /Yesterday’s People /by Jack Weller and his discussion of fatalism and risky behavior embraced by those Weller observed in West Virginia. (Follow links from: http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/manning/Covington%20in%20Salvation.htm go to “living on the edge.” ) Site informs the reader not only by the direct analysis of the text in question, but also by using information and making links to sources as diverse as Centers for Disease Control to learn more about strychnine, and to sites on religious tolerance. A fine use of photos and historical materials judiciously placed expand the reader’s understanding of Covington’s account. (See for example History or Salvation linked from the synopsis page: http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/manning/Synopsis.htm). The material the two provide in “Beyond Serpents” takes the readers of the website further into other practices of the holiness worshippers, further than the Covington text’s concentration on speaking in tongues and handling poisonous serpents.

Links to course texts such as Breece D’J Pancake’s and Weller’s are clearly made. The idea of salvation carried into Pancake’s story of misplaced loyalty and conversion is apt. Other discussions of religion in the course texts (hard shell Baptists and Albion’s preaching as union organizing in /Storming Heaven /or/ River of Earth’s Sim Mobberly’s faith in the Bible passage chosen at random) /could have added another dimension to the work undertaken in this website. This is a minor flaw in an otherwise exemplary and full site. The emphasis in the serious analyses done by Manning and D’Ambrosio shows in these statements on what each saw the book revealing: Manning notes of Covington and salvation, “Only after he has fully immersed himself amongst this mountain subculture does he realize that the serpent is a token of a forgotten past”; D’Ambrosio concludes in “Beyond Serpents”: “The laying on of hands is believed to be a spiritual cleansing inspired by the Holy Spirit. In the religious services in Covington’s book, it also serves as an action that establishes community and trust.”

Given the well chosen and appealing use of visuals, links, and thorough analyses, this website meets and exceeds the mark.

The original annotations on the map of Kentucky welcome the viewer of this website into the region explored in Barr and Weisenthal’s Alternative Spring Break experience doing service in Cranks Creek, Kentucky area of Appalachia. From one of the journal entries they made with its original photos taken by Wesienthal, we see how labor practices show “hardships” and find as well as path into the remnant labor of the profitable coal industry’s shift too surface mining. These lead into course texts such as Giardina’s /Storming Heaven/ and a discussion of Rondal’s mother’s fear turned into apathy when he goes into the dangerous mines. The website emphasizes the burden of loss as well as hard work placed on women and men in the region both in today’s times as they observed in their service work and in the literature.

Interesting primary materials complement the site Barr and Wiesenthal construct: job training posters, radio excerpts, photos of religious signs(“Are you suffering form truth decay?”), bumper stickers (Are you following God this closely”) collected, perhaps at first as amusements, gained greater significance as the website and course materials grew around each other. Dirt roads and thruways; WalMart, McDonald’s and welfare; health benefits and poor health ---all discussed on this website in a way that sets up fruitful juxtapositions hard to fathom even when the web composers consult the course texts by James Still and Giradina and Breece Pancake in fiction and James Weller in his dated (yet still apt) sociological study. See the impressions of religion from Barr’s journal and its links into discussions of hardships: “/The true Catholics among our Georgetown group note the small congregation. A child screams and stomps through the service but the congregation seems undisturbed. As Father Mark preaches, his robe drifts back to expose the holes in his leather shoes http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/barr/hardship.html. He preaches, "God chooses the most unlikely candidates to confide in… like a woman http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/barr/socialstructure.html… a foreigner, even!" (http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/barr/religion.html)/

Roles for women are further enhanced by supplemental readings of historical materials and other fiction such as Arnow’s /Dollmaker/. Like Gertie in /Dollmaker/, and Alpha in/ River of Earth/, the woman of the family works within a patriarchal society noted in Wiesenthal’s remark: “Geneva Grubbs, although unable to earn an income, takes on all the responsibilities of the house despite her husband’s ability to pitch in.” . . . “Alpha's mother and Geneva illustrate the unending strength of Appalachian women, working through old age and illness to care for themselves and their family.” The site could use more interactivity. For example, when Geneva Grubbs discusses living in three coal camps as a child, an obvious connection could be made to Alpha’s litany of coal camps in /River// of Earth//./. Her despair could be compared to Geneva’s contention that the camps were not so bad. This website uses visuals artfully (and with humor that mirrors that found in the region). Consultation of historical materials and course texts works well with the hands-on journal impressions of the contradictions of current day Harlan County.

A beautifully connected panorama of photos greets the view of this site on Coal Mining in the area of St. Paul, Virginia where Walk and Norman spent their alternative spring break doing community service while staying at Grace House, an Episcopal retreat center.

With the composite panorama of the coal slurry line as background (quite literally as well as symbolically) the region is detailed within its modern mining of coal as well as within coal industry’s historical significance. From that home page a click to see what SBIA (Spring Break in Appalachia) holds, leads to a personal understanding of taking the trip not only to do something different or helpful, but also to explore one of the visitor’s roots in that area. See: http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/walk/sbia.html

Discussion of going to Black Lung meetings on that page leads to a page on mining as it was “deep mining” while commentary on “dilapidated coal towns” leads to current memories of Algia, one of the people the two students meet who recalls fondly the company towns built. This sets up a good contrast to the negative views of coal companies and their building and ownership of towns presented in course literature. See: http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/walk/algia.html These pages show the archival photos the students scan from the town of Dante, Va (pronounced DANT)’s own history of the region. See: http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/walk/past.html for their fine use of secondary source by Shifflett who also examines coal towns.

Thus we see the care which these students took to make the site historically appropriate in its visuals, reflective of current attitudes, and helpful to the readers of course texts.

Another key aspect of this site shows the pair took great care to look to the future of the communities they visited. Sarah Walk suggests five promising avenues for creating a more sustainable environment in an area now featuring strip and mountain top removal for recovering coal: economic diversity ( including increased tourism and the prison industry) education, regulation of extraction by sustainable environmental policies, community renewal, and perseverance This page, too shows care with the visuals including stunning views of a tourist-hiker overlooking the gorgeous region and the harsh juxtaposition of strip-mined land: See: http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/walk/future.html Also see the photos on modern methods at http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/walk/present.html. Original photos by this pair of students are featured in many sections besides the home page. For instance Norman’s page on the coal miner Dotter shows the unreclaimed strip mining vistas amid discussion of current practices in mining. See: http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/walk/daniel.html. Carefully chosen links within the “present day” page lead to useful outside links to take the viewer to industry, educational, union, and goverment sites: http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/walk/present.html

Throughout the project, this site’s composers have taken care to use primary sources such as their own original photos, historical photos, store plans, etc., along with sharp analysis of secondary sources to interconnect and make a true web of associations and understandings. Connections to course texts, while apt, could be amplified with more direct quotations.

Resources and credits page gives a full accounting for the-behind-the scenes efforts and acknowledges the help of many in making the trip and project possible.he social and While sufficient material has been authored by both students, the only drawback I see in the creation of this site is that the work load does not seem to have been equally distributed. The site in total shows excellent and very attractive work!!

Sparked by a passage in Denise Giradina’s novel /Storming Heaven/ (about the coal wars in WVa coalfields) about a character getting college education in Berea, Kentucky, this site sets out to undermine the “ignorance” stereotype pertaining to the Appalachians and to WV in particular. The artful graduation music that plays on the home page (if viewed in Explorer) sets the tone for the statistics that Brett Clements produces on college graduation rates of West Virginians and prepares us for the juxtaposition to their heavy out migration in order to get jobs. Clements notes:

“The ‘brain drain’ in West Virginia feeds the white collar economies of Louisville , Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, and other larger cities (Zelenko 56) http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/clements/Citations.htm. The nature of the current economy in the state does not attract college graduates. These skilled workers can find more money and better job security in other areas. Their college education makes these opportunities available to them, while excluding many of the non-college educated with whom they were raised http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/clements/Community.htm.”

Course connections hinge on the way education is treated in the novels and studies. Good work is done to show how Weller’s /Yesterday’s People/ sets up a way of looking at mountaineers , acknowledging the emphasis Weller saw on reference groups and practical, rather than, abstract knowledge. Clements also suggests that Breece Pancake’s characters act according to how they see others seeing them, often rejecting education or not seeing it possible. See http://lumen.georgetown.edu/faculty/oconnor/clements/Community.htm for a discussion of how the characters show a physical community via hunting rather than a mental community of abstract learners. Good discussion of the negative effects on a reader when outsider Richard Burlage judges the lovely WV mountain girl Dory as both beneath his social class and uneducated in the novel /Oral History/. Desire for education could have been illustrated with Dory’s brother Jink (as well as his learned disdain for his own life) as well as characters in Still’s /River of Earth/ to round out this section. Good interactivity among the various pages presented to cross link the reader to ideas and themes.

Links page is well organized to show all institutions of Higher ed and their enrollments with links to their own websites. Other uselful links are also presented to take the viewer to state and national sites as well as commercial sites to situate WV higher education in other contexts and to show an emphasis on change that groups such as the Appalachian regional commission are promoting.