|
Finalist Oregon Book Awards Francis Fuller Victor Award in General Nonfiction
"Joseph Taylor has written a forceful account of coastal Tillamook County’s transition from communities laboring in natural-resource industries—fishing, dairying, and logging—into gentrified settings for retirees, second-home owners, and thriving tourism businesses." "For being such a short work, there is a lot of complicated story here. . . . It is also a revelation of how modern expectations of year-round work and an over-reliance on service economies in rural towns have eroded both local labor and local nature." "Through detailed descriptions of work, the complexities of changing identities are brilliantly revealed with passionate prose. . . . These types of details on tools and labor processes are unfortunately rare in environmental history. The hyper-local focus means Taylor can consult dozens of specific variables in his description of identity, something that is not possible in national or regional studies." - Environmental History "South County is emblematic of the larger crisis happening in rural America" Taylor tells this story "in a detailed, nuanced, respectful way. In the process he raises important questions about the meaning of nature and work that it would behoove all urbanites to ponder with care and sympathy." - Western Historical Quarterly "well-written" and "and thirty years in the making," "Taylor describes persistent efforts to combine seasonal labor and to juggle male and female contributions to household economies that have long helped locals survive the booms and busts afflicting the rural economy. . . . readers interested in such matters and in growing urban-rural cultural divides will find much food for thought in these pages." - Oregon Historical Quarterly "this is an exemplary local history, highly recommended for anyone interested in western history, rural communities, or the political economy of natural resources." - Journal of Arizona History |
