Ebook: Uneven ground: Appalachia since 1945

"How America came to the mountains" / Jim Wayne Miller -- Introduction -- Rich land, poor people -- The politics of poverty -- Developing the poor -- Confronting development -- Growth and development -- The new Appalachia.;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 sough.