Book description
To many antebellum Americans, Appalachia was a frightening wilderness
of lawlessness, peril, robbers, and hidden dangers. The extensive
media coverage of horse stealing and scalping raids profiled the
region's residents as intrinsically violent. After the Civil War, this
characterization continued to permeate perceptions of the area and
news of the conflict between the Hatfields and the McCoys, as well as
the bloodshed associated with the coal labor strikes, cemented
Appalachia's violent reputation. Blood in the Hills: A History of
Violence in Appalachia provides an in-depth historical analysis of
hostility in the region from the late eighteenth to the early
twentieth century. Editor Bruce E. Stewart discusses aspects of the
Appalachian violence culture, examining skirmishes with the native
population, conflicts resulting from the region's rapid modernization,
and violence as a function of social control. The contributors also
address geographical isolation and ethnicity, kinship, gender, class,
and race with the purpose of shedding light on an often-stereotyped
regional past. Blood in the Hills does not attempt to apologize for
the region but uses detailed research and analysis to explain it,
delving into the social and political factors that have defined
Appalachia throughout its violent history.
""An important contribution." --Ronald Lewis,
author of Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the
Coalfields" --
Bruce E. Stewart, assistant professor of history at Appalachian
State University, is the author of Moonshiners and Prohibitionists:
The Battle over Alcohol in Southern Appalachia. He lives in Boone,
North Carolina.
