Ginseng Diggers: A History of Root and Herb Gathering in Appalachia by Luke Manget

Full disclosure: I have dug “sang” on the common land near the small farm in Tennessee’s Sequatchie Valley watershed where my late wife and I started our married life in the 1970s. Recent books – like Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia by Steven Stoll (2018) and Blue Ridge Commons: Environmental Activism and Forest History in Western North Carolina by Katheryn Newfont (2012) and Appalachia’s Alternative to Mainstream America by Paul Salstrom (2021) – have focused attention on the crucial role that common land has played in making what Stoll calls the mixed economy of small-scale farming sustainable. Common land is ground that is not developed and available for unobtrusive usage to nearby landowners. For generations, digging ginseng on the common land has been a key source of income for otherwise primarily subsistence farmers. Thus, this book that explores that tradition is particularly vital. "Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Ginseng Diggers is a tour de force in the