| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Appalachia: A History. By John Alexander Williams. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. xx, 473 pp. Cloth, $49.95, ISBN 0-8078-2699-5. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-8078-5368-2.)

During the late nineteenth century, writers about Appalachia insisted that it was a strange land inhabited by a peculiar people. During most of the twentieth century, writers about Appalachia have struggled with that characterization, wondering whether it was true, why it was true if it was true (but hardly anyone suggested that it was not true), and what the implications of its being true were for the character of America and the possibilities of Appalachia.

Now at last, John Alexander Williams has written about Appalachia as place rather than problem and tells us what went on there. He does so, moreover, with grace and wit, in a book that is at once charming and helpful. As a contribution to the historiography of America, it is delicious. As a contribution to the historiography of Appalachia, it is essential.

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