First meeting

All - Our inaugural conference will be on the campus of Western Carolina University on 27-28 May 2010. The draft program is below. We hope you’ll agree that these papers represent some of the best current research in the field of Appalachian history. We hope you’ll consider attending, both for the papers and the interaction with fellow students of Appalachian history. If you’re interested in attending, a few bits of information:

1. Registration. Please send me (starnes (at) email.wcu.edu) the following information by 1 May 2010:
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Will you attend both days? If not, which?

2. Conference Fee. I’ll provide registered attendees with the conference fee and payment information when it is finalized. The fee will likely be in the $15-20 range and will include a meal and coffee breaks.

Hope to see you in Cullowhee!

Appalachian History Working Group

27-28 May 2010

Inaugural Conference Program
(DRAFT, 30 March 2010)

27 May 2010
Thursday, 1:00 Session #1 – Cigarettes and Whiskey 19th Century Appalachia

Bruce Stewart (Assistant Professor, Appalachian State University)
Stop the Stills, or Ruin is our Certain Doom: Distilling and Alcohol Reform in Appalachian North Carolina during the Civil War

Tom Lee (Assistant Professor, East Tennessee State University)
Southern Appalachia’s Nineteenth-Century Bright Tobacco Boom: A Case for Reconsidering Appalachian Dichotomies

Session #2 – Politics in Late 19th Century Appalachia

T.R.C. Hutton (Lecturer, University of Tennessee)
The Roughest Crowd Ever Gotten Together in the Mountains: The Death of William Goebel Reexamined

Paul Yandle (Visiting Assistant Professor, Middle Tennessee State University)
The Stimulant of Hope: Mountain North Carolina and the Gubernatorial Election of 1872


Thursday, 3:30 Session #1 - Race and Appalachia

Kevin Young (Ph.D. student, University of Georgia)
African Americans in Yancey County, 1850-1910: A Community Study

Elizabeth McRae (Associate Professor, Western Carolina University)
The Politics of Sex and Segregation—Mountain Style


Session #2 – The Federal Government and Appalachia in the
1960s and 70s

Eric Young (Ph.D. student, University of Kentucky)
Appalachia’s Tragic Hero: Eugenics and the Fall of Harry Monroe Caudill

Kathy Newfont (Assoc. Professor, Mars Hill College)
Commons and Wilderness: RARE II Forest Politics in WNC

Lori Copeland (Ph.D. student, University of Kentucky)
Salvaging America’s Subterranean Poor: Project 100,000, Vietnam and the War on Poverty



Thursday, 7:00 Panel – Appalachian History: Where Have We Been, Where are We Going

Ron Eller, Gordon McKinney, John Inscoe, Durwood Dunn


28 May 2010
Friday, 9:00 Session #1 -- Yankees, Missionaries and Appalachian
Stereotypes

John Akey (M.A. student, Appalachian State University)
Edward Owings Guerrant: The Protestant Mission Movement on the Cumberland Plateau, 1865-1917

Brooks Blevins (Professor, Missouri State University)
Whose Southern Highlanders? Missionary Schools in the Arkansas Upland

Gordon McKinney (Professor emeritus, Berea College)
The Appalachian Stereotype: The Yankee and the Hillbilly


Session #2 – Editing and Appalachian History

David Hsiung (Professor, Juniata College)
Editing a Primary Source for Publication and Appalachian History

An Introduction

Over the last several years, a number of colleagues in the field of Appalachian history have discussed forming a group to capitalize on this vibrant, active field of southern and American historiography. The result is this group. Watch this space for information on our inaugural annual meeting at Western Carolina University, 27-28 May 2010.