Appalachia has played a complex and often contradictory role in the unfolding of American history. Created by urban journalists in the years following the Civil War, the idea of Appalachia provided a counterpoint to emerging definitions of progress. Early-twentieth-century critics of modernity saw the region as a remnant of frontier life, a reflection of simpler times that should be preserved and protected. However, supporters of development and of the growth of material production, consumption, and technology decried what they perceived as the isolation and backwardness of the place and sought to «uplift» the mountain people through education and industrialization.Ronald D Eller has worked with local leaders, state policymakers, and national planners to translate the lessons of private industrial-development history into public policy affecting the region. In Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945, Eller examines the politics of development in Appalachia since World War II with an eye toward exploring the idea of progress as it has evolved in modern America. Appalachia's struggle to overcome poverty, to live in harmony with the land, and to respect the diversity of cultures and the value of community is also an American story. In the end, Eller concludes, «Appalachia was not different from the rest of America; it was in fact a mirror of what the nation was becoming.»
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Ronald D Eller. Uneven Ground
UNEVEN GROUND
CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
How America Came to the Mountains. Jim Wayne Miller
INTRODUCTION
1. RICH LAND — POOR PEOPLE
2. THE POLITICS OF POVERTY
3. DEVELOPING THE POOR
4. CONFRONTING DEVELOPMENT
5. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
6. THE NEW APPALACHIA
AFTERWORD TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION. ON THE FUTURE OF APPALACHIA
NOTES. INTRODUCTION
1. RICH LAND—POOR PEOPLE
2. THE POLITICS OF POVERTY
3. DEVELOPING THE POOR
4. CONFRONTING DEVELOPMENT
5. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
6. THE NEW APPALACHIA
AFTERWORD
BIBLIOGRAPHY. MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS
GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
THESES AND DISSERTATIONS
BOOKS AND ARTICLES
INDEX
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Praise for Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945
“Appalachia still weighs heavily on America’s conscience and consciousness, as Ronald D Eller demonstrates with great insight and eloquence in his much-anticipated new study. Uneven Ground offers a clear and compelling portrait of the complexities and contradictions that characterize this vast and increasingly diverse region, burdened at once by growth and stagnation, by both its past and its future. This is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of poverty and progress, of power and powerlessness, in modern Appalachia and the discomforting disparities that still set it apart from the nation as a whole.”—John C. Inscoe, author of Race, War, and Remembrance in the Appalachian South
