BIO
Dr. Thomas D. Clark -.In 1990, when the Kentucky General Assembly honored Clark by declaring him Kentucky’s Historian Laureate for life, Governor Brereton Jones described Clark as “Kentucky’s greatest treasure.” Historian, advocate, educator, preservationist, publisher, writer, mentor, friend, Kentuckian—Dr. Clark has filled all these roles and more. To learn more about Dr. Clark go to; www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/KYHistorianLaureate.htm
LAND
Land in all its forms and conditions has been an imperial force in shaping the spirit and destiny of man. Land itself remains a basic foundation in the progression of human affairs. In its broad collective form it gives scope to beauty and it shapes the human sense of place and destiny. Every generation of man has yielded to the urge to reshape the surface and use of the land without changing its fundamental meaning in the affairs of its tenants.
There have ever been contrasting forces between rural and urban occupancy, and between pastoral and urban usages. If history has any area of absolute certainty, it is that land has ever been a cardinal force in shaping the actions and destiny of its occupying tenants. Every generation has faced the necessity of making compromises with the land to accept and abide change.
In Kentucky there has existed an almost perpetual conflict between rurality and urbanity. In the present generation looms the impressive fact of creeping rural-non-farm development that gives new meaning and social emphasis to the revered denomination of place. The fate of land itself rests in the compromises that each generation makes in accepting the impelling forces of change and in the reconciliations the current occupying tenants make with the past.
– Thomas D. Clark, 9/28/04
To learn more about Dr. Clark, explore these links:
The American Historical Association
www.historians.org/Perspectives/Issues/2004/0402/0402con1.cfm
The Organization of American Historians
www.oah.org/pubs/nl/99nov/clark.htm
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/KYHistorianLaureate.htm
The University of Kentucky Press
www.kentuckypress.com/viewbook.cfm?Group=7&ID=1077
The Prichard Committee
www.prichardcommittee.org/pubs/changesaug03.pdf
KET –Bookclub@ket.org
www.ket.org/bookclub/books/2004_feb/clark.htm
