Review of Jones, R. L. & Wofford. B. E (2013). Woody Plants of Kentucky and Tennessee: The Complete Winter Guide to Their Identification and Use. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky. 224 pages. ISBN: 9780813142500

Review of Byerly, D. W. (2013). The Last Billion Years: A Geologic History of Tennessee. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. 212 pages. ISBN: 9781572339743

Review of Camp Redemption, by Raymond l. Atkins].

Review of Lambert, L. C., Jr. & Lambert, M. (2011). Up from These Hills: Memories of a Cherokee Boyhood. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 197 pages. ISBN 978-0-8032-3536-6.

Book Review of Wood, A. L. (Ed.). (2011). The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Volume 19: Violence. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 368 pages. ISBN: 9780807872161

As methods by which texts are to be understood, positivism and historicism have a long tradition and continue to exert wide influence in all academic disciplines. Other approaches to textual concerns have recently emerged to challenge the dominance of these two approaches. Foremost among these new approaches are hermeneutics and deconstruction. Both of the latter approaches recognize that interpretation is inescapable. The latter challenges even the possibility of determinate meaning. A theoretical discussion of historicism and positivism uncovers questionable and troublesome difficulties. Hermeneutics in its conservative or radical variations overcomes the difficulties of interpretation that positivism and historicism can't explain. As an example of the problems of positivism and historicism, several narratives from the Book of Mormon illustrate how readings by revisionist Mormon readers—those who believe it is a modern work of fiction rather than an authentic ancient document—find exactly the evidence sought, largely without consulting the text they attempt to explain. Using biblical criticism with the assumption that it will illuminate the Book of Mormon text, especially of the literary rather than the historical variety, the narratives are complex and sophisticated works. Four narratives (the stealing of the daughters of the Lamanites, the broken bow, the Nahom incident, and the building of the ship narrative) illustrate the texture of the Book of Mormon as a set of complicated narratives that draw strongly from biblical archetypes of the exodus and patriarchal narratives.

Since the earliest explorations of the Colorado Plateau, geologists have suspected that cliffs are retreating back laterally. Clarence Dutton envisioned “the beds thus dissolving edge wise until after the lapse of millions of centuries their terminal cliffs stand a hundred miles or more back from their original position” when he wrote about the landscape in 1882. While many geologic studies have determined how fast rivers cut down through the Plateau, only a few studies have calculated how quickly cliffs retreat laterally, and geologists have been arguing since the 1940’s what exactly drives cliffs to retreat in the first place. We study the Book Cliffs in central Utah, and in particular remnant landforms and deposits related to a 120,000-year history of erosion and deposition, which we date by optically stimulated luminescence methods. Our dataset shows that deposits along the Book Cliffs are preserved especially during times of climate instability, which suggests that escarpment retreat locally is driven by climatic disturbances. This disproves older hypotheses suggesting escarpments retreat in response to local factors regardless of shifts in climate, and it is consistent with the few other well-studied escarpment records globally. We also constrain the rates of cliff retreat via a new measurement approach and luminescence age control, showing that the Book Cliffs have retreated at 1-3 meters per thousand years while local toeslope drainages have incised at about 0.5 meters per thousand years, which confirms that cliffs of shallow-dipping, layered rock retreat laterally faster than streams lower the landscape vertically.

Crowing Hens Bindery is an independent business that I have founded to combine my passion for bookbinding, printmaking, and production. The purpose of this study is to provide an opportunity for me begin to make the transition from being a student in a graduate level book arts program to a self-employed bookbinder in a production and market driven environment. To gain a better understanding of production binding techniques I implemented a small production run. I designed three blank book prototypes that focus on the needs of the user, and I developed marketing descriptions to help put these products within a market context. To diversify my product line, I have created a variety of decorative papers including paste papers and linocut letterpress printed papers. These will serve as my proprietary covering material and offer alternative avenues to supplement my income. I have photographed the various stages of bookbinding and printing to illustrate the process of product development. This study has allowed me to begin to assume the various roles and responsibilities that a self-employed bookbinder must assume in order to cultivate a successful business.

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