A History of AppalachiaFor more than twenty years historians have expressed the critical need for a single-volume history of Appalachia. Responding to this demand, Richard Drake has skillfully and confidently woven together the various strands of the Appalachian experience into a sweeping whole. The land has always shaped its people. 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. More recently, the corporate exploitation of natural resources has brought financial disaster to many mountain people. 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. |
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agriculture Alabama American Revolution antislavery Appala Appalachian Mountains Appalachian Regional Appalachian Regional Commission army backwoods became blacks Bourbon Democrats British campaign centers Cherokee chia chian churches Civil coal Cohee colonies Company Confederacy Confederate County Creek culture Democratic developed dominated early East Tennessee eastern Kentucky economic elite emerged farm farmers forests French frontier fur trade Georgia Indian industry Iroquois John Knoxville labor land leaders Lexington major migration miners modern moun mountain area nation North America North Carolina North Carolina Press northern Ohio Ohio River Pennsylvania political population Populist Poverty president Press of Kentucky programs railroad Republican Party Ridge River rural scalawag scholars Scotch-Irish settlement Shenandoah Valley slavery slaves society South Southern Appalachians southern mountains stereotypes Tennessee Press thousand tion towns trade traditional tucky Union United University of Tennessee University Press War on Poverty West Virginia western North Carolina William World writers yeoman yeomanesque York