Mason (English and gender studies, Oklahoma State U.) sets the stage and describes the conflict when a routine curriculum committee's report to the school board on textbook recommendations erupted into a battleground for the culture wars then raging across the US. Her perspectives include soul on Appalachian ice, a modern American conflict, Sweet Alice and secular humanism, reproducing the souls of white folk, and writing Appalachia. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)