COMMON READINGS

• Catte, What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia. 2018. (excerpt)

• Cosgrove, Ben. “War on Poverty: Portraits from an Appalachian Battleground, 1964,” Time.com. Jan. 7, 2014.

• Eller, Ronald D. “The War on Poverty in Appalachia.” n.d.

• Fessler, Pam. “In Appalachia, Poverty Is in the Eye of the Beholder.” NPR.org. Jan. 18, 2014.

• Harkins, “Introduction: Race, Class, Popular Culture, and ‘the Hillbilly,’” in Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon. 2003. 3-12.

• Henderson, Debra and Ann Rachel Tickamyer, “The Intersection of Poverty Discourses.” in Dill, Bonnie et al., ed., Emerging Intersections. 2009, 50-72.

• Hillbilly (documentary, 2018).

• Newitz, Annalee and Matthew Wray. “What Is ‘White Trash’? Stereotypes and Economic Conditions of Poor Whites in the U.S..” Minnesota Review 47(Fall 1996), 57-72.

• Newman, Katelyn. “Hope for Change in Appalachia.” US News & World Report. Sept. 25, 2018.

• Vance, J.D. Hillbilly Elegy. 2016. (excerpt).

DOCUMENTARY FILM

• Harlan County, USA (1976).

• 48 Hours – Another America (1989).

• Flashback: Eastern Kentucky Responds to 48 Hours Report (1999). 

• Dancing Outlaw (1991).

• American Hollow. Undercover America (1999).

• The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2009).

• The Last Mountain (2011).

• Oxyana (2013).

• Hillbilly (2018).

• Inside a Cursed Appalachian Mining Town (2018).

Readings on documentary: 

• Young, Stephen T. “Wild, Wonderful, White Criminality: Images of ‘White Trash’ Appalachia.” Critical Criminology; Dordrecht 25, no. 1 (March 2017): 103–17. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.middlebury.edu/10.1007/s10612-016-9326-7.

FICTION FILM

• Deliverance. 1972.

• Smokey and the Bandit. 1977.

• Coal Miner’s Daughter. 1980.

• The Dollmaker. 1984.

•  Matewan. 1987.

• Winter’s Bone. 2010.

TELEVISION

• Beverly Hillbillies (CBS, 1962-71)

• Andy Griffith Show (CBS, 1960-68)

• Petticoat Junction (CBS, 1963-70)

• Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (CBS, 1964-69)

• The Waltons (CBS, 1972-80)

• Dukes of Hazzard (CBS, 1979-1985)

• Justified (FX, 2010-2015)

• Hee Haw (CBS, 1969-71, First-run syndication, 1971–93,The Nashville Network, 1996–97)

Readings on TV portrayals:

• Bullard, Gabe. “The Weird History of Hillbilly TV.” THE BITTER SOUTHERNER. https://bittersoutherner.com/the-weird-history-of-hillbilly-tv/.

• Harkins, “The Hillbilly in the Living Room: Television Representations, 1951-1971,” in Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon. 2003. 173-204.

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN APPALACHIA

POETRY:

• The Affrilachian Poets (website)

• hooks, bell. Appalachian Elegy Poetry and Place. 2012.

• Walker, Frank X. Affrilachia: Poems by Frank X Walker. 2000.

• Spriggs, Bianca Lynne and Jeremy Paden, ed., Black Bone: 25 Years of the Affrilachian Poets. 2018.

SCHOLARSHIP:

• Wagner, Thomas E., and Phillip J. Obermiller. African American Miners and Migrants: The Eastern Kentucky Social Club. 2004.

• Brown, Karida L. Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia. 2018.

• McCarroll, Meredith, Matthew Bernstein, and R. Palmer. Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film. 2018.

OTHER MEDIA:

• Thompson, Aaron. “Stereotypes Of Appalachia Obscure A Diverse Picture.” NPR.org.

• “Whitewashing Reality: Diversity in Appalachia > Appalachian Voices.” Appalachian Voices (blog), February 7, 2014.

GENDER IN APPALACHIA

• Kahn, Kathy. Hillbilly Women. New York: Avon, 1980.

• Wilkerson, Jessica. To Live Here, You Have to Fight: How Women Led Appalachian Movements for Social Justice. 2018.

THE WAR ON POVERTY

• Anonymous. “The Fifty Years War: Appalachia,” The Economist. 414:8930 (Mar 21, 2015): 21-22.

• Catte, Elizabeth. “Passive, Poor and White? What People Keep Getting Wrong about Appalachia.” The Guardian, February 6, 2018.

• Caudill, Henry M., Night Comes to the Cumberlands. 1962.

• Cosgrove, Ben. “War on Poverty: Portraits from an Appalachian Battleground, 1964,” Time.com. Jan. 7, 2014.

• Eller, Ronald D. “The War on Poverty in Appalachia,” n.d.

• Fessler, Pam. “In Appalachia, Poverty Is in the Eye of the Beholder.” NPR.org. Jan. 18, 2014.

• Harrington, Michael. The Other America. 1962.

• Glen, John M. “The War on Poverty in Appalachia: Oral History from the ‘Top down’ and the ‘Bottom Up.’” The Oral History Review. 22:1 (Summer, 1995), 67-93

• Gustafson, Kaaryn S. Cheating Welfare: Public Assistance and the Criminalization of Poverty. 2012.

• Newman, Katelyn. “Hope for Change in Appalachia.” US News & World Report. Sept. 25, 2018.

HISTORY

• Eller, Ronald D. Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945. 2013.

• Harkins, Anthony. Hillbilly a Cultural History of an American Icon. 2003.

• Hsiung, David C. Two Worlds in the Tennessee Mountains: Exploring the Origins of Appalachian Stereotypes. 1997.

• Isenberg, Nancy. White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America. 2017.

• McNeil, W. K., ed. Appalachian Images in Folk and Popular Culture. 1995.

• Pipes, G. H. Strange Customs of the Ozark Hillbilly.1947.

• Portelli, Alessandro. They Say in Harlan County: An Oral History. 2012.

• Stoll, Steven. Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia. 2017.

• Wagner, Thomas E., and Phillip J. Obermiller. African American Miners and Migrants: The Eastern Kentucky Social Club. 2004.

HILLBILLY ELEGY AND ITS CRITICS

• Catte, Elizabeth. What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia. 2018.

• Catte. “Appalachia Isn’t the Reason We’re Living in Trump Country.” Literary  Hub (blog), February 8, 2018.

• Harkins, Anthoy and Meredith McCarroll, ed. Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy. 2019.

• Hillbilly (documentary film). 2018.

• Stine, Ali. “No Elegies for Appalachia: The Real Stories Are Resilence and Self-Reliance.” Rewire.News. March 20, 2018.

• Vance, J.D. Hillbilly Elegy. 2016.

LITERATURE (NOVELS, SHORT FICTION, VERSE)                

• Branscum, John E, and Wayne Thomas. Red Holler: Contemporary Appalachian Literature, 2013.

• Brosi, George and Katherine E Egerton. Appalachian Gateway: An Anthology of Contemporary Stories and Poetry. 2013.

• Edwards, Robert Alan. Appalachian Writers. National Public Radio, 1980.

• Ford, Daniel. “Country Discomfort: Author David Joy On Appalachian Noir and His Debut Novel.” Writer’s Bone. March 3, 2015.

• hooks, bell. Appalachian Elegy Poetry and Place. 2012.

• Joy, David. “Digging in the Trash.” The Bitter Southerner. 2019.

• Joy. Where All Light Tends to Go. 2015.

• Joy. The Weight of This World. 2017.

• Leonard, Elmore. Fire in the Hole: Stories. 2012.

• Linkon, Sherry L. The Half-Life of Deindustrialization: Working-Class Writing about Economic Restructuring. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018.

• McCarthy, Cormac. The Orchard-Keeper. 1965.

• Rash, Ron. Serena. 2008.

• Slone, Verna Mae. How We Talked and Common Folks. 2009.

• White, Charles Dodd and Larry Smith, ed. Appalachia Now: Short Stories of Contemporary Appalachia. 2015.

• Woodrell, Daniel. Winter’s Bone. 2007.

“TRUMP COUNTRY”

• Adams, Mason. “Don’t Call Appalachia ‘Trump Country’ Just Yet.” Vice.com. Apr. 19 2017.

• Hampson, Rick. “Bobby Kennedy and Donald Trump and the Battle for Appalachia’s Heart.” USAToday.com. Feb. 12, 2018.

• Penaluna, Regan. “Elizabeth Catte: Appalachia Isn’t Trump Country.” Guernica. March 7, 2018.

• Stanek, Becca. “How Donald Trump Dominated Appalachia, in 1 Startling Map.” The Week. May 11, 2016.

• Benderev, Chris and Kelly McEvers. “In the Coal Counties Of Central Appalachia, Will Trump’s Promises Come True?” NPR.org. May 9, 2018.

• MacFarquhar, Larissa. “In the Heart of Trump Country.” The New Yorker.” October 10, 2016.

• Peters, Charles. “I Remember When Appalachia Wasn’t Trump Country.” The New York Times. January 20, 2018.

• “Trump Visit to Appalachia.” The Athens Messenger. Aug 24, 2018.

• Wilkey, Joshua. “Surprised by Trump’s Popularity in Appalachia? Don’t Be.” This Appalachia Life. Oct. 18, 2017.

• Rich, Frank. “The Trump Voters Who Don’t Deserve Democrats’ Sympathy.” New York Magazine. March 19, 2017.

Debtwire. “Trump’s Promise To Revive Appalachian Coal Jobs Founders Without Opioid Plan.” Forbes. Feb. 1, 2018.

GENERAL SCHOLARSHIP

• Egolf, Jennifer, Ken Fones-Wolf, and Louis C Martin. Culture, Class, and Politics in Modern Appalachia: Essays in Honor of Ronald L. Lewis. 2012.

• Erickson, Kai. Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood. 1972.

• Guilford, Gwynn. “The 100-Year Capitalist Experiment That Keeps Appalachia Poor, Sick, and Stuck on Coal.” Quartz. Dec. 30, 2017.

• Linkon, Sherry L. The Half-Life of Deindustrialization: Working-Class Writing about Economic Restructuring. 2018.

• Isenberg, Nancy. White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America. 1988.

• Satterwhite, Emily. “Imagining Home, Nation, World: Appalachia on the Mall.” The Journal of American Folklore. 121: 479 (Winter, 2008), 10-34.
• Ziliak, James P., ed. Appalachian Legacy: Economic Opportunity after the War on Poverty. 2012

MATERIAL CULTURE

• Miller, Christopher. “Hillbilly Stereotype Objects in the Appalachian Artifact Collections.” Berea College Library Special Collections.