''They Live on the Land: Life in an Open Country Southern Community'' is a social study of an Alabama rural community written by social scientists Paul W. Terry and Verner M. Sims and published in 1940. The book was based on research undertaken by Terry and Sims under the auspices of the Tennessee Valley Authority during the period 1934–1936. Terry and Sims were academic researchers in educational psychology based at the University of Alabama at the time.

Summary

The book covers the origins, civic and economic activities, health and welfare, and religious, recreational, and educational lives of the people of a rural Alabama community that the authors called "Upland Bend". "Upland Bend" was a pseudonym for the Alabama community of Gorgas in Tuscaloosa County. The book is based on interviews with 196 of the 209 families in Gorgas. The work highlighted racial discrimination in the community, as well as economic deprivation and social and political disaffection. The period in which the study took place overlapped with the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

Reception

Contemporary reviews were generally positive. A review in '' The High School Journal'' described it as a "socially valuable document" and stated that "you can feel the pulse of their .e., the people of Gorgaslives after reading this report". A review in ''

The Elementary School Journal The ''Elementary School Journal'' (''ESJ'') is a quarterly academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press that focuses on elementary and middle school education. ''ESJ'' publishes articles dealing with both education theory an ...

'' described the book as "thorough and comprehensive throughout...no aspect of community life has been left neglected". Writing in '' The Ohio Valley Sociologist'', Lloyd Allen Cook gave the book a mixed review, praising the depth of detail of the book but criticizing it for lacking a sense of the "unity of place". Retrospective reviews of the book were also positive. Writing in 2004, Professor

Wayne Flynt James Wayne Flynt (born October 4, 1940) is University Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Auburn University. He has won numerous teaching awards and been a Distinguished University Professor for many years. His research focuses ...

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

described the book as "a revealing snapshot of rural Alabama during the 1930s". A 1993 review of the Alabama Classics reprint of the book in '' The Anniston Star'' described the book as "a valuable case study that will serve as a permanent record" and as a "well-researched work". Writing the foreword to the 1993 re-print,

Clarence L. Mohr Clarence L. Mohr (October 3, 1946 – August 5, 2017) was a professor of American history and an author. He was a lecturer at Yale in 1979 as a fellow of American Council of Learned Societes, before obtaining posts as a professor at Tulane Universi ...

compared the book to the seminal depression-era sociological work '' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men''.

References

{{reflist 1940 non-fiction books English-language books English non-fiction books Alabama culture Non-fiction books about the Great Depression New Deal in Alabama Books about social history Books of interviews