Appalachia

Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S. state of Alabama, the cultural region of Appalachia typically refers only to the central and southern portions of the range.

Since its recognition as a distinctive region in the late 19th century, Appalachia has been a source of enduring myths and distortions regarding the isolation, temperament, and behavior of it Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S. state of Alabama, the cultural region of Appalachia typically refers only to the central and southern portions of the range.

Since its recognition as a distinctive region in the late 19th century, Appalachia has been a source of enduring myths and distortions regarding the isolation, temperament, and behavior of its inhabitants. Early 20th-century writers focused on sensationalistic aspects of the region's culture, such as moonshining and clan feuding, and often portrayed the region's inhabitants as uneducated and prone to impulsive acts of violence. Sociological studies in the 1960s and 1970s helped to deconstruct these stereotypes, although popular media continued to perpetuate the image of Appalachia as a culturally backward region into the 21st century.

Early Appalachian literature typically centered on the observations of people from outside the region, such as Henry Timberlake's Memoirs (1765) and Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia (1784), although there are notable exceptions, including Davy Crockett's A Narrative of the Life of Davy Crockett (1834). Travellers' accounts published in 19th-century magazines gave rise to Appalachian local color, which reached its height with George Washington Harris's Sut Lovingood character of the 1860s and native novelists such as Mary Noailles Murfree. Works such as Rebecca Harding Davis's Life in the Iron Mills (1861), Emma Bell Miles' The Spirit of the Mountains (1905), and Horace Kephart's Our Southern Highlanders (1913) marked a shift in the region's literature from local color to realism. The transition from an agrarian society to an industrial society and its effects on Appalachia are captured in works such as Olive Tilford Dargan's Call Home to the Heart (1932), James Still's The River of Earth (1940), Harriette Simpson Arnow's The Dollmaker (1954), and Harry Caudill's Night Comes to the Cumberlands (1962). In the 1970s and 1980s, the rise of authors like Cormac McCarthy, Breece D'J Pancake, Dorothy Allison, and Lisa Alther brought greater literary diversity to the region.

There is a strong Appalachian folklore tradition, comprised of a mixture of European, Native American (especially Cherokee), and Biblical influences. Appalachian folk tales are rooted in English, Scottish, and Irish fairy tales, as well as regional heroic figures and events. Jack tales, which tend to revolve around the exploits of a simple-but-dedicated figure named "Jack," are popular at story-telling festivals. Other stories involve wild animals, such as hunting tales. Regional folk heroes such as the railroad worker John Henry and frontiersman Davy Crockett are examples of real-life figures that evolved into popular folk tale subjects. Murder stories, such as Omie Wise and John Hardy, are popular subjects for Appalachian ballads. Ghost stories, or "haint tales" in regional English, are a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition. Ghost stories native to the region include the story of the Greenbrier Ghost, which is rooted in a Greenbrier County, West Virginia murder.

Appalachia as an academic interest was the product of a critical scholarship that emerged across the disciplines in the 1960s and 1970s. With a renewed interest in issues of power, scholars could not dismiss the social inequity, class conflict, and environmental destruction encountered by America's so-called "hillbillies." Appalachia's emergence in academia is a result of the intersection between social conditions and critical academic interests, and has resulted in the development of many Appalachian studies programs in colleges and universities across the region, as well as in the Appalachian Studies Association. ...more

Appalachia Books

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, #1)

What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains

More appalachia books...

Lists

Can't You Hear Me Callin' by Richard D. Smith

Bluegrass Breakdown by Robert S. Cantwell

Traveling the High Way Home by John Wright

Best Books About Bluegrass Music and Culture

87 books — 4 voters

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

Appalachian Horror

48 books — 19 voters

Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

Queer in Appalachia

3 books — 1 voter

Foxfire

43 books — 3 voters

The Secret Place of Thunder by Alicia G. Ruggieri

Books Set in Appalachia

252 books — 63 voters

Smoke, Roots, Mountain, Harvest by Lauren McDuffie

Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread & Scuppernong Wine by Joseph Earl Dabney

The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery by Linda Garland Page

Appalachian Appetite by Susi Gott Séguret

Regional Foodways & Cuisine: Appalachia

67 books — 4 voters

Featured News & Interviews

Books to Celebrate Black History Month (and Read All Year-Round)

Read »

Quotes Tagged “Appalachia”

“ You are not a handgun. More like a pellet gun. Maybe even a slingshot. ”
― Jason Jack Miller, The Devil and Preston Black

3 likes

“ Elegies are poems dedicated to the dead. The American hillbilly(assuming we can use that word for the white working class) isn't dead; she is just poor. ...more ”
― Anthony Harkins, Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy

2 likes

More quotes...