A History of AppalachiaRichard Drake has skillfully woven together the various strands of the Appalachian experience into a sweeping whole. Touching upon folk traditions, health care, the environment, higher education, the role of blacks and women, and much more, Drake offers a compelling social history of a unique American region. The Appalachian region, extending from Alabama in the South up to the Allegheny highlands of Pennsylvania, has historically been characterized by its largely rural populations, rich natural resources that have fueled industry in other parts of the country, and the strong and wild, undeveloped land. The rugged geography of the region allowed Native American societies, especially the Cherokee, to flourish. Early white settlers tended to favor a self-sufficient approach to farming, contrary to the land grabbing and plantation building going on elsewhere in the South. The growth of a market economy and competition from other agricultural areas of the country sparked an economic decline of the region's rural population at least as early as 1830. The Civil War and the sometimes hostile legislation of Reconstruction made life even more difficult for rural Appalachians. Recent history of the region is marked by the corporate exploitation of resources. Regional oil, gas, and coal had attracted some industry even before the Civil War, but the postwar years saw an immense expansion of American industry, nearly all of which relied heavily on Appalachian fossil fuels, particularly coal. What was initially a boon to the region eventually brought financial disaster to many mountain people as unsafe working conditions and strip mining ravaged the land and its inhabitants. A History of Appalachia also examines pockets of urbanization in Appalachia. Chemical, textile, and other industries have encouraged the development of urban areas. At the same time, radio, television, and the internet provide residents direct links to cultures from all over the world. The author looks at the process of urbanization as it belies commonly held notions about the region's rural character. |
From inside the book
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... Ridge, the Ridge and Valley section, and the Cumberland–Allegheny Highlands. In fact, this narrative will encompass much of Appalachian Pennsylvania during the period before 1820, when western Pennsylvania's history was closely tied to ...
... Ridge. During much of the Indian Era, the Appalachian Mountains provided the home for the most prosperous and powerful Indian nations of eastern North America. Part of the reason Indian nations in Appalachia thrived, at least until 1650 ...
... Ridge. The Pardo party may have left some permanent traces of its time in North Carolina, for there are still mysterious ruined mines in the Mount Mitchell area of the state that may date from the sixteenth century. In 1567, this party ...
... Ridge in 1669 and 1670. Lederer reported these expeditions in Latin and embellished them with exaggerations about impossible heights and fierce lions and tigers. Perhaps the most interesting of the seventeenth-century exploration ...
... Ridge and the Shenandoah Valley. Elaborate camps were established at the end of each day's travel, and good fellowship accompanied good food and much drink. At the end of their journey, Governor Spotswood gave each of these gentlemen a ...