COMING IN 2024
FROM UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY
LESSONS FROM THE FOOTHILLS: APPALACHIA’S BEREA COLLEGE AND ITS UNIQUE PLACE IN AMERICA
A student at Berea College. Photo credit: Justin Skeens
In Lessons from the Foothills, Gretchen Dykstra profiles contemporary Berea College with its rich and beloved history. Kentucky abolitionist John Gregg Fee established the small school in 1855 to educate anyone eager to learn, regardless of their race—a notion that horrified those convinced of the sanctity of white supremacy. Four years later on Christmas Eve, sixty-five prominent and armed white men rode into the small town of Berea forced the townspeople to close their integrated one-room schoolhouse. Thirty-six community members, including Fee’s entire family, fled. In 1864 Fee and the others returned and reestablished what became Berea College.
This book is the first to focus solely on Berea’s clearly articulated mission., which individually and holistically, provide clear aspirations for the college and its community. The first of the great commitments says the college will “provide an educational opportunity for students of all races, primarily from Appalachia, who have great promise and limited economic resources.” Berea has never lost its way. Not one of Berea’s 1500 students ever pays tuition; everyone works 10-20 hours on campus to assist with living expenses; 45% are Black or Latino; 5% come from 70 different nations; and all come from low-income families. Many consider Berea the moral compass of the commonwealth,.
Like the institution itself, Dykstra’s portrait is structured around these principles; each chapter functions as a deep dive into the history, current practice, and significance of each of the Eight Great Commitment. With stories and insights from alumni, students, faculty, and staff Lessons from the Foothills is an engaging and illuminating profile of a unique and historic institution and its enduring commitment to academic excellence, public service, and respect for one another.
“An engaging and illuminative remembrance.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Echoes from Wuhan: The Past as Prologue
AVAILABLE now
INDIEBOUND | BARNES & NOBLE | AMAZON
Echoes from Wuhan tells the dramatic, fast-paced story of a naïve and adventuresome young American woman and how she navigated—well and not so well--the complexities of cross- cultural confusions and clashes in China long ago.
A prisoner of privilege and watched by Party officials, Gretchen Dykstra stayed two years and returned to a career in civic affairs of New York City. She maintained enduring friendships with some of her students and, through those bonds, reveals aspects of an ancient culture that shape modern China.
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Civic Pioneers: Local Stories from a Changing America, 1895-1915
available now
“The happiest men I know in all this unhappy world of ours, are those leaders who brave, loyal and sometimes in tears are serving their fellow men.” Lincoln Steffens
Today as activists around America reclaim the common good, Gretchen Dykstra uncovers dramatic stories of creative public servants who shaped much of life as we know it now. Some are remembered, most have been forgotten.
From a crusader for children’s rights in Oklahoma to a postal clerk-turned-police chief in Berkeley to a heroic fire chief in Chicago to the champion of immigrants in New York and others, Dykstra showcases committed city and state trailblazers and highlights the timeless traits of leadership they possessed.
“How can we call ourselves patriots if we know little of our country’s past?” David McCullough
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What people are saying about Civic Pioneers
“From big cities to rural towns, Pioneers is a smart new look at America’s history of local innovation - by someone who has helped lead it." —Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York, 2002-2013, and founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
“These interesting, inspirational and important profiles engagingly tell the tales of people who had a huge impact on all aspects of our society. Written with the wisdom of an insider, Dykstra shows us how big a difference local government can make in the lives of individual Americans and in the life of the nation as a whole.” —Cokie Roberts, journalist and author
“ An informative and engrossing introduction to key individuals.” —Kirkus Review
“ A unique approach to American political history…a work of fact that reads with all the narrative smoothness of fiction…Meticulously researched, impressively written, exceptionally well organized and presented.” —Library Bookwatch/Midwest Book Review
“Fully relevant and significant to today’s readers since many long for a renewed sense of the power of public service…very timely.” —Chad Berry, Dean of Faculty, Berea College
“These stories powerfully illustrate the positive and long-lasting impact that service in the common good can have.” —Louise Mirrer, president and CEO, New-York Historical Society
Book launch on May 22, 2019 of “Civic Pioneers” in the historic Surrogates Courthouse in New York, home of the Municipal Archives. Photo by Philip Greenberg.