Appalachia on Our Mind: The Southern Mountains and Mountaineers in the American Consciousness, 1870-1920

Appalachia on Our Mind is not a history of Appalachia. It is rather a history of the American idea of Appalachia. The author argues that the emergence of this idea has little to do with the realities of mountain life but was the result of a need to reconcile the “otherness” of Appalachia, as decribed by local-color writers, tourists, and home missionaries, with assumptions about the nature of America and American civilization.

Between 1870 and 1900, it became clear that the existence of the ...