Empowering Communities


Book Description

Early in the twentieth century, for-profit companies such as Duke Power and South Carolina Electric and Gas brought electricity to populous cities and towns across South Carolina, while rural areas remained in the dark. It was not until the advent of publicly owned electric cooperatives in the 1930s that the South Carolina countryside was gradually introduced to the conveniences of life with electricity. Today, electric cooperatives serve more than a quarter of South Carolina's citizens and more than seventy percent of the state's land area, bringing not only power but also high-speed broadband to rural communities. The rise of public power--electricity serviced by member-owned cooperatives and sanctioned by federal and state legislation--is a complicated saga encompassing politics, law, finance, and rural economic development. Empowering Communities examines how the cooperatives helped bring fundamental and transformational change to the lives of rural people in South Carolina, from light to broadband. James E. Clyburn, the majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina, provides a foreword.




Rural Life in the Piedmont of South Carolina


Book Description

Agriculture, the backbone of South Carolina's economy since the time of the first settlers in the late 1600s, has truly shaped the identity of the Piedmont region, serving as a common touchstone for the people of the Upstate. As the Palmetto State moves away from small, independent farms into a landscape dominated by big corporations and franchised companies, it is important to pay tribute to the industry that has enabled this state to proceed so successfully into the twenty-first century, both financially and culturally. Farming is much more than "cattle and crops," as some may think, and Rural Life in the Piedmont of South Carolina deals with the subject in over 180 striking photographs, displaying the grace, hard work ethic, and inventiveness of these men and women who have toiled under the South Carolina sun. As you thumb through these pages, you will venture into an era not so far in the past, but which seems exceedingly distant and foreign with each passing year. Exploring the rural landscapes between the years 1918 and 1968, this volume will allow you to experience firsthand the people who worked the land, their machinery and homes, the county agents who demonstrated new techniques for farming improvements, and many scenes of different areas in the Upstate with its many different annual harvests, from pigs, chickens, and cows to sorghum, cotton, alfalfa, hay, corn, tobacco, and peaches.
















Rural Development and Farm Credit


Book Description







Rural Development


Book Description