Two Worlds in the Tennessee Mountains: Exploring the Origins of Appalachian Stereotypes

Most Americans know Appalachia through stereotyped images: moonshine and handicrafts, poverty and illiteracy, rugged terrain and isolated mountaineers. Historian David Hsiung maintains that in order to understand the origins of such stereotypes, we must look critically at their underlying concepts, especially those of isolation and community.

Hsiung focuses on the mountainous area of upper East Tennessee, tracing this area's development from the first settlementin the eighteenth century to t...