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7/19 - KNOXVILLE, TN: A Mountain City in the New South 3rd Ed. - Bruce Wheeler w/ Jesse Mayshark

Union Ave Books invites you to attend a virtual book event with Bruce Wheeler to discuss to the 3rd Edition of KNOXVILLE, TN: A MOUNTAIN CITY IN THE NEW SOUTH. Bruce will be joined in conversation by Jesse Mayshark, reporter and co-publisher of Compass (compassknox.com). This free virtual event takes place on  July 19th @ 2pm (EDT) on Zoom, please send an RSVP to RSVP@unionavebooks.com to attend. Please include the title of the book KNOXVILLE, TN in the subject line. We will send the zoom link the day of the event.

Pre-Order the book here: https://unionavebooks.indielite.org/book/9781621905790

DESCRIPTION


This third edition of Knoxville, Tennessee: A Mountain City in the New South includes a new preface and a valuable new chapter covering the period from the death of Cas Walker to the end of the administration of Madeline Rogero, Knoxville’s first female mayor.

Wheeler argues that, until very recently, like Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (1925), Knoxvillians had fabricated for themselves a false history, portraying themselves and their city as the almost impotent victims of historical forces that they could neither alter nor control. The result of this myth has been a collective mentality of near-helplessness against the powerful forces of isolation, poverty, and even change itself. But Knoxville’s past is far more complicated than that, for the city contained abundant material goods and human talent that could have been used to propel Knoxville into the ranks of the premier cities of the New South—if those assets had not slipped through the fingers of both the leaders and the populace. In all, Knoxville’s history is the story of colliding forces—country and city, North and South, the poor and the elites as well as the story of colorful figures, including Perez Dickenson, Edward Sanford, George Dempster, Carlene Malone, Bill Haslam, and Madeline Rogero, among many, many more.

While challenges related to public health, income inequality, racism, and the environment remain, Wheeler detects the possibility that the myth Knoxvillians have clung to may finally be fading. Downtown development by vibrant local entrepreneurs, a government more responsive than ever before, and an economy that endured a severe economic downturn only to turn out brighter than expected are all symptoms of a Knoxville that may be ready to take its place in the rising urbanism of twenty-first-century America.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (S)


WILLIAM BRUCE WHEELER is professor emeritus in both history and honors at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is the co-author of TVA and the Tellico Dam: A Bureaucratic Crisis in Post-Industrial America and The Discovery Series. He has just completed the third edition of Knoxville, Tennessee: Mountain City in the New South. He and his wife, Linda, live peacefuly in the mountains of Sevier County, where he tends his flower gardens, sings shape notes, and is forever behind in his reading.

JESSE MAYSHARK worked as a reporter and editor for 20 years before going to work in communications for Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero in 2011. As a journalist, Jesse was at various points the editor of Metro Pulse, Knoxville’s late alt-weekly; a copy editor and freelance music writer for The New York Times; a reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel and the Mountain Press in Sevier County; and a regular contributor to the music magazine No Depression. He is also the author of the 2007 book Post-Pop Cinema: The Search for Meaning in New American Film. During his time with the City of Knoxville, Jesse served as Senior Director of Communications and Government Relations and was a member of Mayor Rogero’s Cabinet, and therefore a helpful contributor to the final updated chapter in the 3rd Ed.

 

Event Date: 
Sunday, July 19, 2020 - 2:00pm
Address: 
517 Union Ave.
Knoxville, TN 37902
Books: 
Knoxville, Tennessee: A Mountain City in the New South Cover Image
$26.95
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9781621905790
Published: Univ Tennessee Press - April 23rd, 2020

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