For more than twenty years historians have expressed the critical need for a single-volume history of Appalachia. Responding to this demand, Richard Drake has skillfully and confidently woven together the various strands of the Appalachian experience into a sweeping whole.
The land has always shaped its people. The rugged geography of the region allowed Native American societies, especially the Cherokee, to flourish. Early white settlers tended to favor a self-sufficient approach to farming, contrary to the land-grabbing and plantation building going on elsewhere in the South. More recently, the corporate exploitation of natural resources has brought financial disaster to many mountain people.

Touching upon folk traditions, health care, the environment, higher education, the role of blacks and women, and much more, Drake offers a compelling social history of a unique American region.

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