Disappearing Appalachia in Tennessee

Appalachia is my home. I've never been all that interested in the history of it, but recently I've started to become curious about the heritage I used to be embarrassed by. I decided to seek out written works of the history of Appalachia in hopes of learning more about what was unfortunately not passed down to me generationally.

Let's start with the good. I started out hopeful with this book, and I did find many portions of it informative. I enjoyed reading the interviews and Appalachian life stories.

Unfortunately, that's about it. I guess the authors thought we didn't need the female perspective, because they interviewed many people, but very very few women. It started out with interesting notes about culture and history that were fading in modern day Tennessee. But then it seemed like they ran out of things to talk about, because they started romanticizing things that have clearly seen improvements like wooden bridges. They even talked about how frightening and dangerous they were to cross, but then said “those were the fun days.” Older does not always equate to better. There were a lot of reaches like this in the 2nd half of the book.

And then there was this: “Here lurked danger in natural abundance and in Indian tribes who viewed the intrusion of Europeans as a dark and dangerous time in their existence.” First of all, Native Americans. They were here first. And they didn't just “view” it as a dark and dangerous time, it WAS.

Anyway, I learned a little, but was disappointed by a lot.