Chock full of the wit and wisdom that has become  the Foxfire trademark, this entirely new volume in  the acclaimed, 6-million-copy best-selling  Foxfire series is on oral history of  Appalachian lives and traditions, homespun crafts,  and folk arts.

A heartwarming and uplifting summer read for fans of Heidi Swain and Phillipa Ashley, by the author of The Country Village Christmas Show, The Country Village Summer Fete and The Country Village Winter Wedding. At eighty-two years old Zelda Grey is tired. Tired of how much slower she is physically and mentally. Tired of technology. Tired of being alone since her beloved cat, Flint, died just before Christmas. And tired of life. The only thing that brings Zelda joy these days is her allotment in the gorgeous village of Little Bramble, where she has lived her whole life, and her three cranky goats. Widow Mia Holmes always loved visiting Little Bramble Allotment with her husband, Gideon. But since his death she can't motivate herself. Despite putting on a brave face for her three sons and four grandchildren, she's reached breaking point, and isn't sure she can carry on. And history teacher Liz Carter thought she had it all. The perfect job, perfect boyfriend in Rhodri and the perfect wedding to plan. Until she found Rhodri in bed with the neighbour. Holed up in her sister's box room she wonders how it all went so wrong. As she wallows in her misery, her sister takes her in hand and drags her to Little Bramble Allotment and suddenly she discovers the wonders of planting, growing and getting her hands dirty. In an increasingly lonely world, these three women strike up an unlikely friendship and find that community, female friendship and the wonders of nature can truly be powerful healers.

This book investigates what a case study of a northern market town and its rural hinterland can tell us about village differentiation, exploring how and why rural communities developed in what was chiefly an industrial region and, notably, how the relationship between town and country influenced rural communities. It looks at six villages close to Doncaster - Sprotbrough, Warmsworth, Rossington, Fishlake, Stainforth and Braithwell - chosen to represent the diversity of landownership and land type of the Doncaster district. Rural communities, and more specifically the development of English villages, have proved fertile ground for historians. This book makes an original contribution to these debates. In particular, it engages with existing models of village typology, suggesting that not only are they too restrictive to account for nuanced differences, but also that they fail to acknowledge the importance of the relationships between rural communities and between town and country. Following Sarah Holland's detailed research into different aspects of rural communities, the book offers new perspectives on how rural communities in close proximity developed, often differently, during the mid-nineteenth century. Themes looked at in detail include living and working conditions, agriculture and industry, religion and education, and through these Holland considers existing theories of village typology, before setting out her ideas regarding social hierarchies, spheres of influence and agency, which combine to create complex patterns of differentiation. Communities in Contrast will appeal to all those interested in rural life and economy in the nineteenth century, the relationship between town and country, as well as the history of Yorkshire.

This paper argues that social protection policies and programs, including safety nets programs designed to deliver short-term relief, have an important role in promoting the resilience of the people residing in dryland regions.

Welcome to Gradieshti, a Soviet village awash in gray buildings and ramshackle fences, home to a large, collective farm and to the most oddball and endearing cast of characters possible. For three years in the 1960s, Vladimir Tsesis-inestimable Soviet doctor and irrepressible jester-was stationed in a village where racing tractor drivers tossed vodka bottles to each other for sport; where farmers and townspeople secretly mocked and tried to endure the Communist way of life; where milk for children, running water, and adequate electricity were rare; where the world's smallest, motley parade became the country's longest; and where one compulsively amorous Communist Party leader met a memorable, chilling fate. From a frantic pursuit of calcium-deprived, lunatic Socialist chickens to a father begging on his knees to Soviet officials to obtain antibiotic for his dying child, Vladimir's tales of Gradieshti are unforgettable. Sometimes hysterical, often moving, always a remarkable and highly entertaining insider's look at rural life under the old Soviet regime, they are a sobering expose of the terrible inadequacies of its much-lauded socialist medical system.

Unprecedented changes in Bangladesh's rural economy have driven poverty reduction since 2000. This analysis of the dynamics of rural growth, especially the role of agriculture and its relationship to the non-farm economy, reveals priorities for accelerating and channeling that dynamism.

This book fills a gap between theory and practice in the field of the rural communities research. The book consists of fourteen chapters which analyse specific aspects and suggest possible solutions regarding rural communities in the global economy, insisting on the recent transformations of the classical rural economy paradigms in contemporary economies. The main topics of the book are centered but not limited to the following aspects: Recent transformations of the rural communities; Rural paradigm agricultural and food models; Rural sustainable investments; Consumption models; Business investments strategies in rural areas; Transition economics and market reforms in rural economy; Market inequity and rural economy; Business models and start-ups in rural areas. This book tries to provide insights and support for policy makers, investors, researchers - all of this connecting to the rural communities in the global economy. In this context, the objective of the book is to provide relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the area of green rural communities in the global economy and their impact on sustainable development of competitive markets.

Country Life Readers
By Cora Wilson Stewart
Third Book
Preface
There is an increasing demand for the education of adult illiterates who have somehow missed their opportunity in early life, and also for the better education of adults that have a very limited degree of learning. The city has provided for this need to some extent with evening Schools, designed mainly for foreigners. All the textbooks for evening schools have, therefore, been prepared strictly for immigrants and city dwellers. Rural America is coming to realize that there exists a need for education among adults in the rural sections as much as among those in the cities. For this reason moonlight schools, rural evening schools, which begin their sessions on moonlight evenings, have been established and have now been extended to fifteen States. The people attending these schools demand textbooks which deal with the problems of rural life and which reflect rural life, and to meet this demand this book has been prepared. The author has utilized the opportunity when the rural dweller is learning to read to stimulate a livelier and more intelligent interest in such subjects as agriculture, horticulture, good roads, home economics, health and sanitation, and those subjects, which, if taught to him, will make for a richer and happier life on the farm.
Suggestions to Teachers
An excellent opportunity is offered in this Reader to introduce profitably certain objects and operations of rural life. If the teacher will utilize this opportunity, it will both give an added interest to the subject and impress the principles of the same. Therefore, the teacher is urged to study these suggestions and to follow them as carefully as possible.
1. The script, following the printed lesson, is designed to constitute the writing lesson of the evening's session, and should be copied at least ten times. The letters in script are intended for additional practice work in copying.
2. In connection with the road lessons on pages 10 and 11, a discussion of good and bad roads would be profitable, this discussion being based on the facts stated in these lessons. For instance, there may be an estimate of time lost and of injury to team and wagon by bad roads.
3. For teaching the banking lesson on page 17, a supply of blank checks should be provided in advance. After the lesson has been read, the checks should be distributed among the students. Then, after a line is read in concert, the action mentioned should be performed by the class. For example, after the class reads, "I write the date," all should write the date on their checks; after reading the next line, they should write the name of the payee.
4. The lessons on fruit will be more interesting if...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windham Press is committed to bringing the lost cultural heritage of ages past into the 21st century through high-quality reproductions of original, classic printed works at affordable prices.
This book has been carefully crafted to utilize the original images of antique books rather than error-prone OCR text. This also preserves the work of the original typesetters of these classics, unknown craftsmen who laid out the text, often by hand, of each and every page you will read. Their subtle art involving judgment and interaction with the text is in many ways superior and more human than the mechanical methods utilized today, and gave each book a unique, hand-crafted feel in its text that connected the reader organically to the art of bindery and book-making.
We think these benefits are worth the occasional imperfection resulting from the age of these books at the time of scanning, and their vintage feel provides a connection to the past that goes beyond the mere words of the text.

The impetus behind this volume stems from reflections on commemorations of the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision. Brown turned 60 in May of 2014, and many special issues of peer?reviewed journals were dedicated to that anniversary. Unlike most special issues and volumes, we sought to highlight a smaller part of Brown, though no less significant. More specifically, we thought to develop a volume that focused on rural education in the aftermath of the decision. Most of the education policy and education reform literature caters to urban and suburban contexts, and very few academic books and journal articles-with the exception of research conducted by Craig, Amy, and Caitlin Howley and the Journal for Research on Rural Education-focus on rural education in the US. Thus, we wanted this volume to focus on the politics of educational opportunity in rural contexts. There is a paucity of rigorous research that examines how education policy affects the conditions of rural education. More specifically, research is scarce in examining the ways in which students in rural schools and districts have access to educational opportunities, although approximately one?third of all public schools are located in rural areas (Ayers, 2011). Educational opportunity in rural districts has been plagued by geographic isolation, loss of economic bases, and lack of capital (both financial and political) to voice the need for resources. To be clear, this volume does not present chapters that detail educational opportunity in rural districts and schools from a deficit perspective. Instead, chapters in this volume offer insight into both micro? and macro?level policies and practices that shape educational opportunities for students in rural schools and districts. As such, chapters in this volume investigate the "now" of educational opportunity for rural students and makes recommendations and suggestions for "later". Given that, we are reminded of James Coleman's (1975) thesis, "Education is a means to an end, and equal opportunity refers to later in life rather than the educational process itself" (p.28). This book will be organized into two distinct sections. The first section, comprised of chapters that examine educational opportunity in rural districts from a micro?level perspective, is devoted to chapters that broadly examine the implications of state and federal policy on educational opportunity in rural schools and districts. The second section, which includes case studies of rural districts in the American South, Appalachia, and the Northeast, takes a macro?level approach to examining educational opportunity in rural districts. Combined, chapters throughout the book provide readers with both an overview and a specific snapshot of educational opportunity in rural schools. Given the breadth and scope of chapters included in this volume, we believe the book adds tremendously to the education policy literature, as this vantage point has rarely been included in larger education policy discussions.