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| Taking Up Serpents: Snake Handlers of Eastern Kentucky | 
| Author: David L. Kimbrough
Publisher: Mercer University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.00
Buy New: $17.10
You Save: $1.90 (10%)
New (9) from $17.10
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 880201
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 232
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 086554798X
Dewey Decimal Number: 291
EAN: 9780865547988
ASIN: 086554798X
Publication Date: February 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 taking up serpents January 2, 2003
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Being a snake handling buff and unable to read David L. Kimbrough's, Taking Up Serpents for years, I finally had the pleasure. Kimbrough's work far surpasses anything else that has been written on the subject. Kimbrough being an Appalachian and Ph.D. sets the standard for doing oral research along with combing the archieves.
Kimbrough's work focuses on the Saylor family in eastern Kentucky and shows how the movement evolved. Kimbrough illustrates how the snake handling movement gained momentum when industrial capitalism surfaced in Kentucky.
The work is simply the best source for scholars and people with a general interest in snake handliing. No other book comes close to this masterpiece.
 All in the Family May 20, 2000
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
This is a very thoroughly researched book about snake-handling Pentecostals. I highly recommend it for an unbiased account of the practice. The author focused on one family, and did an incredible job of detailing the history of snake handling through them. The book covers everything from why these believers handle snakes, the very beginnings of the practice, the other "signs" (taking poison, handling fire), the basic doctrine of their church, the legal battles, the migration of the church & the snakes, the miracles, and the deaths. It also offers a wonderful history of the Saylor family, including their religious beliefs. I married into this family not even knowing that snake handling existed outside of old-time circuses and music videos, and after reading this book have a MUCH better grasp of the whole concept. Though all 53 of the photos are black & white, they add quite a bit. Even if you have no interest in purposefully picking up a rattlesnake or drinking strychnine, or don't even know who the Saylors are, this book gives the reader a front row pew on a part of American culture few people will ever experience.
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