On a Burning Deck: The Road to Akron; An Oral History of the Great Migration, Vol. 1, 1900–1920

Jones (Waldo Maccabees: In the Footsteps of Christ) shares the entertaining story of his grandparents’ early 20th-century move from Kentucky north to find work in Ohio’s burgeoning rubber industry. The oral-history format allows Jones to step back and let his paternal grandparents—Florence and mischievous Haskell—relate stories from their childhoods and young adulthoods. While Florence dutifully describes her education and years of teaching, Haskell’s anecdotes of tough rural Kentucky and the early years of Ohio factory work stand out. Though Haskell shares fond remembrances of fights and pranks, the pain he felt from the abuse inflicted on him by his well-respected father, a local magistrate, comes through throughout. Jones judiciously uses contemporaneous newspaper coverage of the era and family photographs to supplement his grandparents’ recollections. Jones also uses his grandfather’s own term hillbillies without resorting to stereotyping or mocking Kentucky’s culture. The first of two planned volumes, Jones’s enlightening book provides new insights into the white Southerners who migrated north prior to the Great Depression. (BookLife)