River of Earth in Context

Appalachian Studies

(Re)Mappings of Appalachia

Appalachia in the Popular Imagination

Roots

The Bogtrotters

Roscoe Holcomb(1950s)

The Carter Family

The Foxfire Series emerged from a program in alternative education in the 1960s. Students worked, in effect, as folklorists, gathering and documenting information about the customs and practices informing Appalachian culture. This work led to Foxfire magazine, started in 1966, and to The Foxfire Book, published in 1972—a surprising best-seller.

Roots

Arie Carpenter emerged from the Foxfire projects as one of the most vivid characters and voices. In Aunt Arie, Carpenter speaks about various aspects of Appalachian society and culture and is representative of the tendency to view the Appalachian “Granny” or “Aunt” as a fount of homespun wisdom springing from the “primitive” well of Appalachia. The feisty and outspoken mountain “Granny” is an enduring trope, as evinced by Granny Younger in Lee Smith’s Oral History and, of course, Granny in The Beverly Hillbillies.

Roots

RootsCoal production began in the late nineteenth century in Appalachia, totally transforming local communities, economies, and ecologies.

How might we read the relationship between energy production in and cultural production of Appalachia?

Harlan County, Kentucky

The presence of the coal mining industry in Harlan County, KY, can be traced through a history of labor unrest. In the 1930s, riots and murders surrounding protests by miners seeking better working conditions made “Bloody Harlan County” a major site in the history of labor relations. Another chapter in this history was recorded in the 1970s with another round of riots and strikes. The Oscar-winning documentary Harlan County, USA chronicles this episode.

They say in Harlan County,There are no neutrals there.You’ll either be a union man,Or a thug for J.H. Blair. - Florence Reece “Which Side Are You On?

Breach at the Kingston, TN, TVA plant releases over 1 billion gallons of coal ash sludge (2008). Before the BP Oil Spill, it was the worst environmental disaster in U.S.

history.