This course will focus on two books that lend credence to the adage that “creative human endeavors are often autobiographical.” In hindsight, the latter of the two – J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy:  A Memoir of a Family and Culture (Harper, 2016) – might also be considered a reflection of one man’s considerable ambition.  Course participants can determine if that assumption also applies to our other book – my own Appalachians All:  East Tennesseans and the Elusive History of an American Region (University of Tennessee Press, 2010).

In session one, we will discuss the matter of Appalachian identity and how it has evolved from the days when there was no “Appalachia” (up to c. 1870) to the era when mainstream America “discovered Appalachia” (c. 1870 – 1960s) to our own times (since the 1970s) when American popular culture and scholars from the evolving field of Appalachian studies offered widely divergent views of our region and its identity.  In those contexts, we will introduce at the end of that session the books of concern in this course.  Session two will explore in-depth similarities and notable differences in the two books and implications each offers for our region’s present and future.

NOTE:  For this course, the word Appalachia minus quotation marks will refer to geographical Appalachia.  Conversely “Appalachia” will refer to popular perceptions (both negative and positive) of this place and its residents.