The Cedar Choppers : Life on the Edge of Nothing

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	The Cedar Choppers : Life on the Edge of Nothing
Description:	At the low-water bridge below Tom Miller Dam, west of downtown Austin, during the summer of his tenth or eleventh year, Ken Roberts had his first encounter with cedar choppers. On his way to the bridge for a leisurely afternoon of fishing, he suddenly found himself facing a group of boys who clearly came from a different place and culture than the middle-class, suburban community he was accustomed to. Rather, “... they looked hard—tanned, skinny, dirty. These were not kids you would see in Austin.” When Roberts's fishing companion curtly refused the strangers'offer to sell them a stringer of bluegills, the three boys went away, only to reappear moments later, one of them carrying a club. Roberts and his friend made a hasty retreat. This encounter provoked in the author the question, “Who are these people?” The Cedar Choppers: Life on the Edge of Nothing is his thoughtful, entertaining, and informative answer. Based on oral history interviews with several generations of cedar choppers and those who knew them, this book weaves together the lively, gritty story of these largely Scots-Irish migrants with roots in Appalachia who settled on the west side of the Balcones Fault during the mid-nineteenth century, subsisting mainly on hunting, trapping, moonshining, and, by the early twentieth century, cutting, transporting, and selling cedar fence posts and charcoal. The emergence of Austin as a major metropolitan area, especially after the 1950s, soon brought the cedar choppers and their hillbilly lifestyle into direct confrontation with the gentrified urban population east of the Balcones Fault. This clash of cultures, which provided the setting for Roberts's encounter as a young boy, propels this first book-length treatment of the cedar choppers, their clans, their culture and mores, and their longing for a way of life that is rapidly disappearing.
Authors:	Ken Roberts
Resource Type:	eBook.
Subjects:	Self-reliant living--Texas--Texas Hill Country, Cedar--Texas--Texas Hill Country, Loggers--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Economic conditions, Loggers--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Social life and customs, Charcoal burners--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Social life and customs, Charcoal burners--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Economic conditions
Categories:	HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX), HISTORY / Social History, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Rural
Database:	eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)

FullText	Links: – Type: ebook-pdf Text: Availability: 0
Header	DbId: nlebk DbLabel: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) An: 1789815 RelevancyScore: 1084 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: eBook PubTypeId: ebook PreciseRelevancyScore: 1083.55249023438
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Items	– Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: The Cedar Choppers : Life on the Edge of Nothing – Name: Abstract Label: Description Group: Ab Data: At the low-water bridge below Tom Miller Dam, west of downtown Austin, during the summer of his tenth or eleventh year, Ken Roberts had his first encounter with cedar choppers. On his way to the bridge for a leisurely afternoon of fishing, he suddenly found himself facing a group of boys who clearly came from a different place and culture than the middle-class, suburban community he was accustomed to. Rather, “... they looked hard—tanned, skinny, dirty. These were not kids you would see in Austin.” When Roberts's fishing companion curtly refused the strangers'offer to sell them a stringer of bluegills, the three boys went away, only to reappear moments later, one of them carrying a club. Roberts and his friend made a hasty retreat. This encounter provoked in the author the question, “Who are these people?” The Cedar Choppers: Life on the Edge of Nothing is his thoughtful, entertaining, and informative answer. Based on oral history interviews with several generations of cedar choppers and those who knew them, this book weaves together the lively, gritty story of these largely Scots-Irish migrants with roots in Appalachia who settled on the west side of the Balcones Fault during the mid-nineteenth century, subsisting mainly on hunting, trapping, moonshining, and, by the early twentieth century, cutting, transporting, and selling cedar fence posts and charcoal. The emergence of Austin as a major metropolitan area, especially after the 1950s, soon brought the cedar choppers and their hillbilly lifestyle into direct confrontation with the gentrified urban population east of the Balcones Fault. This clash of cultures, which provided the setting for Roberts's encounter as a young boy, propels this first book-length treatment of the cedar choppers, their clans, their culture and mores, and their longing for a way of life that is rapidly disappearing. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Ken+Roberts%22">Ken Roberts</searchLink> – Name: TypePub Label: Resource Type Group: TypPub Data: eBook. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Self-reliant+living--Texas--Texas+Hill+Country%22">Self-reliant living--Texas--Texas Hill Country</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cedar--Texas--Texas+Hill+Country%22">Cedar--Texas--Texas Hill Country</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Loggers--Texas--Texas+Hill+Country--Economic+conditions%22">Loggers--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Economic conditions</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Loggers--Texas--Texas+Hill+Country--Social+life+and+customs%22">Loggers--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Social life and customs</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Charcoal+burners--Texas--Texas+Hill+Country--Social+life+and+customs%22">Charcoal burners--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Social life and customs</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Charcoal+burners--Texas--Texas+Hill+Country--Economic+conditions%22">Charcoal burners--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Economic conditions</searchLink> – Name: SubjectBISAC Label: Categories Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22HISTORY+%2F+United+States+%2F+State+%26+Local+%2F+Southwest+%28AZ%2C+NM%2C+OK%2C+TX%29%22">HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22HISTORY+%2F+Social+History%22">HISTORY / Social History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SOCIAL+SCIENCE+%2F+Sociology+%2F+Rural%22">SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Rural</searchLink>
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RecordInfo	BibRecord: BibEntity: Classifications: – Code: 305.9634975609763 Scheme: ddc Type: prePub Languages: – Code: eng Text: English Subjects: – SubjectFull: Self-reliant living--Texas--Texas Hill Country Type: general – SubjectFull: Cedar--Texas--Texas Hill Country Type: general – SubjectFull: Loggers--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Economic conditions Type: general – SubjectFull: Loggers--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Social life and customs Type: general – SubjectFull: Charcoal burners--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Social life and customs Type: general – SubjectFull: Charcoal burners--Texas--Texas Hill Country--Economic conditions Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: The Cedar Choppers : Life on the Edge of Nothing Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Ken Roberts – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Ken Roberts IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2018 – D: 20 M: 04 Type: profile Y: 2018 Identifiers: – Type: isbn-print Value: 9781623496074 – Type: isbn-electronic Value: 9781623496081 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: number twenty-four Titles: – TitleFull: The Cedar Choppers : Life on the Edge of Nothing Type: main
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