Selling Tradition: Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk, 1930-1940

The first half of the twentieth century witnessed a growing interest in America’s folk heritage, as Americans began to enthusiastically collect, present, market, and consume the nation’s folk traditions. Examining one of this century’s most
prominent “folk revivals” — the reemergence of Southern Appalachian handicraft traditions in the 1930s — Jane Becker unravels the cultural politics that bound together a complex network of producers, reformers, government officials, industries, museums, u...