12 Rounds in Lo's Gym: Boxing and Manhood in Appalachia

12 Rounds in Lo's Gym: Boxing and Manhood in Appalachia

by Todd D. Snyder
12 Rounds in Lo's Gym: Boxing and Manhood in Appalachia

12 Rounds in Lo's Gym: Boxing and Manhood in Appalachia

by Todd D. Snyder

Paperback(1st Edition)

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Overview

Questions of class and gender in Appalachia have, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election and the runaway success of Hillbilly Elegy, moved to the forefront of national conversations about politics and culture. From Todd Snyder, a first generation college student turned college professor, comes a passionate commentary on these themes in a family memoir set in West Virginia coal country.
 
12 Rounds in Lo’s Gym is the story of the author’s father, Mike “Lo” Snyder, a fifth generation West Virginia coal miner who opened a series of makeshift boxing gyms with the goal of providing local at-risk youth with the opportunities that eluded his adolescence. Taking these hardscrabble stories as his starting point, Snyder interweaves a history of the region, offering a smart analysis of the costs—both financial and cultural—of an economy built around extractive industries.

Part love letter to Appalachia, part rigorous social critique, readers may find 12 Rounds in Lo’s Gym—and its narrative of individual and community strength in the face of globalism’s headwinds—a welcome corrective to popular narratives that blame those in the region for their troubles. 


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Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781946684127
Publisher: West Virginia University Press
Publication date: 02/16/2018
Edition description: 1st Edition
Pages: 240
Sales rank: 1,049,043
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Todd Snyder is associate professor of rhetoric and writing at Siena College and author of The Rhetoric of Appalachian Identity
 

Table of Contents

Prelude

Mountain Violence

Part I Corner Men: The Eden Story of Lo's Gym Boxing Club

1 Fighting Noah Milton 9

2 Tough Men 25

3 Lo's Gym 41

4 Flex and the Rumble on the Hill 57

5 Street Preacher 72

Part II Counterpunchers: Parables of Coal Country Pugilism

6 The Unlikely Reincarnation Story of Rick Cogar 97

7 Jeremiah and the Three Bears 116

8 Ring Girls 133

9 Appalachian Underdogs of the Squared Circle 149

Part III Split Decisions: Stories from the Championship Rounds

10 Prizefighters 169

11 Hillbilly Jefferson 185

12 Premature Stoppage 200

Dedication: Fighting Naton Leslie 219

Notes 223

Index 229

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