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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... York. These various Indian nations all shared the Woodland cultural tradition and fit together a temporary ... York State. During the sixteenth century in New York, meanwhile, the politically powerful Iroquois Confederacy was pieced ...
... York. The Hurons, Erie, Neutrals, Delaware, and Conestogas, however, were unfortunate enough to be outside the confederacy itself, and to be occupying adjoining lands in Ontario or Pennsylvania; these nations were defeated and in some ...
... York, and the Cherokee, based in the heartland of Southern Appalachia. Though the Cherokee were not “in control” in the south as the Iroquois Confederacy dominated the north, they were a significant part of the balance of power that had ...
... up the Mohawk River and from there over the New York Appalachians into the Delaware Valley and the Susquehanna. Continuing on, he went up the Juniata and over the mountains to the Allegheny River and the Ohio River. Thus,
... York. It was probably largely in response to Croghan's Ohio Valley fur trade enterprises that the French sent Celoron de Bienville on his journey down the Ohio River in 1749. During this journey, Bienville defiantly buried lead plates ...