High Mountains Rising: Appalachia in Time and Place

by Richard A. Straw (Editor), H. Tyler Blethen (Editor), H. Tyler Blethen (Contribution by), David C. Hsiung (Contribution by), Michael Montgomery (Contribution by)

Overview

This collection is the first comprehensive, cohesive volume to unite Appalachian history with its culture. Richard A. Straw and H. Tyler Blethen's High Mountains Rising provides a clear, systematic, and engaging overview of the Appalachian timeline, its people, and the most significant aspects of life in the region.

The first half of the fourteen essays deal with historical issues including Native Americans, pioneer settlement, slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, industrialization, the Great Depression, migration, and finally, modernization. The remaining essays take a more cultural focus, addressing stereotypes, music, folklife, language, literature, and religion.

Bringing together many of the most prestigious scholars in Appalachian studies, this volume has been designed for general and classroom use, and includes suggestions for further reading.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252092602
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	10/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	621 KB

About the Author

Richard A. Straw is professor of history at Radford University, the author of Images of America: Blacksburg, and has published articles on Appalachian foodways, on Mike Seeger, and on the United Mine Workers of America, coal mining, and historical photography. H. Tyler Blethen is Creighton Sossomon Professor of History and director of the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University, and a coeditor of Ulster and North America: Transatlantic Perspectives on the Scotch-Irish.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments   vi

Introduction   1   Richard A. Straw
1. Native Americans   7   C. Clifford Boyd Jr.
2. Pioneer Settlement   17   H. Tyler Blethen
3. Slavery and African Americans in the Nineteenth Century   30   John C. Inscoe
4. The Civil War and Reconstruction   46   Gordon B. McKinney
5. Industrialization   59   Ronald L. Lewis
6. The Great Depression   74   Paul Salstrom
7. Migration   88   Phillip J. Obermiller
8. Stereotypes   101   David C. Hsiung
9. Music   114   Bill C. Malone
10. Folklife   135   Michael Ann Williams
11. English Language   147   Michael Montgomery
12. Literature   165   Ted Olson
13. Religion   179   Deborah Vansau McCauley
14. Modernization, 1940-2000   197   Ronald D Eller

Suggested Readings   221
Contributors   231
Index   235
 

Editorial Reviews

Appalachian Writers Association, Appalachian Book of the Year Award in Nonfiction, 2005. Winner of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award, 2005.

"This stimulating, readable collection of essays gives a fine overview of Appalachia, its history, its people, and different aspects of life in the region over time that range from economic and social life to literature and folklore."—Loyal Jones, former director of the Berea College Appalachian Center and author of Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands

"What a fine addition to books about Appalachia. . . . It is an anthology that serves as the single best introduction to the whole idea of Appalachia. . . . The authors of the selections are quite simply the foremost experts in their fields, and they have managed to create entries which serve as excellent introductions to their topics while at the same time they are stimulating to the already well-informed."—Appalachian Heritage

"The first comprehensive, cohesive volume to unite Appalachian history with its culture."—Black Issues Book Review

"Blethen and Straw should be commended for their work compiling and editing this important and very accessible collection. The individual essays hang together well, and there is an impressive internal consistency between them. . . . High Mountains Rising should be, and undoubtedly will be, widely used in Appalachian Studies classes."—Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review

From the Publisher