Hillbilly Hellraisers: Federal Power and Populist Defiance in the Ozarks

by J Blake Perkins

Long a bastion of antigovernment feeling, the Ozark region today is home to fervent strains of conservative-influenced sentiment. Does rural heritage play an exceptional role in the perpetuation of these attitudes? Have such outlooks been continuous? J. Blake Perkins searches for the roots of rural defiance in the Ozarks--and discovers how it changed over time. Eschewing generalities, Perkins focuses on the experiences and attitudes of rural people themselves as they interacted with government from the late nineteenth century through the twentieth century.He uncovers the reasons local disputes and uneven access to government power fostered markedly different reactions by hill people as time went by. Resistance in the earlier period sprang from upland small farmers' conflicts with capitalist elites who held the local levers of federal power. But as industry and agribusiness displaced family farms after World War II, a conservative cohort of town business elites, local political officials, and midwestern immigrants arose from the region's new low-wage, union-averse economy. As Perkins argues, this modern antigovernment conservatism bore little resemblance to the backcountry populism of an earlier age but had much in common with the movement elsewhere.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

296 pages, Paperback

Published September 11, 2017

Reviews

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ozarks region of middle America has always defied simple definitions and characterizations. The myths and stereotypes about the Ozarks are deeply ingrained in our consciousness, but they never have painted a true picture of the people and their culture, desires, needs, problems, etc. Perkins's book reinforces one essential truth about Ozarks people: they tend be proud and fiercely independent, even in the face of long-term adversity.

There is a strong tradition of tension between individual rural families and individuals and/or institutions in authority. Poverty has always been a dark shadow hanging over the Ozarks, even when other parts of the country were climbing out of it. Although many people here petitioned for government assistance in the past, there is a history in this region of distrust of government programs, which ended up being administered and exploited by local and state officials. Law enforcement was fine as long as it didn't try to stop individuals from scraping out a living, even through illegal means. More than anything, native Ozarkers have always just wanted to be left alone. When their autonomy was threatened, especially by outside forces, they sometime became violent.

[Emmie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I pick up a book that I would not normally read. With this book it was the cover and title that drew me. I have heard of the term "Hillbilly" before and had to admit that I was curious.

Having not lived in the US before, or been to the Ozarks, it held a certain fascination and some romanticism for me.

I have to say that this book was very well researched and presented. Even for someone like myself, who has no idea of the history or people, it proved fascinating and eye opening. I now understand the economic importance of certain things and the role that moonshine payed in those communities. Politics and power plays as allways prove very fascinating, especially in this community.

I know some people said that it wasn't a page turner. That may well be the case, but it is a valid and extremely interesting book.

I would recommend it to everyone who has an interest in History.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Michele Minor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books gives a look at the history of the populist view in the Ozarks region and how originally they had actually rebelled against the federal government even protesting against the draft during WWI. This is different from today when they do seem to support any war that America gets into without thinking that it is a war for profit that boys from poor families fight in which is the view that we do get from them today. He doesn't go into how those in that region felt about the draft during the Vietnam War and about those boys who dodged the draft. It does go into how they can support someone like Donald Trump today. This book was written before the Corona virus and the shutdown of businesses due to it so he didn't go into their viewpoints about opening up businesses early. I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review from NetGalley.

[Skipr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful and eye-opening history of rural small farmers in the Ozarks. The author's thesis is that the farmers and working class in the region from the late 1800s to World War II were not opposed to federal intervention as much as they opposed the implementation of that intervention through local and state elites/power structure. His argument is persuasive, but he suffers from repeating it in almost the same form so often that I was exasperated by the repetition by the time I got halfway through the book. I persevered, however, and in the last chapter he demonstrates that opposition to federal intervention in the region since World War II doesn't have its source so much in small farmers, who have mostly disappeared, and more to do with conservative middle class in-migrants who have replaced the earlier culture with their own.

[Sivkishen Sivkishen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his Hillbilly Hellraisers J. Blake Perkins brilliantly gives the roots of rural defiance in the Ozarks--and discovers how it changed over time and is simply fascinating… Sivkishen Ji

[Jud Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book that provides a lot of insight into the politics of rural AR and the history behind the anti-government stereotype applied to areas such as the Ozarks and Appalachia.