On Appalachia

No new photos yet. The weather is beautiful, sunny, if a bit cold, but it's that wind -- biting, harsh -- that's keeping me indoors. Better weather soon.

Meantime, some links worth checking out, via Fred First at Fragments from Floyd: Eastern Tennessee State University is publishing an Encyclopedia of Appalachia, in the bookstores soon.

Fred also mentions another new book about Appalachia, United States of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment to America by Jeff Biggers. From a description:

Beyond its mythology in the American imagination, Appalachia has long been a vanguard region in the United States-—a cradle of U.S. freedom and independence, and a hot bed for literature and music. Some of the most quintessential and daring American innovations, rebellions, and social movements have emerged from an area often stereotyped as a quaint backwater. In the process, immigrants from the Appalachian diaspora have become some of our nation's most famous leaders.

An interesting counterpoint to James Webb's book, Born Fighting: how the Scots-Irish Shaped America.