What a great turnout. A professor of history and the director of the institute on democracy. Thank you to cspan for being your. We are doing something a little differently because of cspan being your. For instance, im going to say a little bit more about what the institute is at the beginning for the tv audience. Founded in 2014, it is a joint project of the Political Science and history departments in cooperation with other scholarly groups on campus. Dedicated to research, teaching, and Community Engagement on american political thought and wide variety of perspectives. It is created from a generous der foundationkin and we are thankful that they made this one of their philanthropies among many others they could choose. And learns to teach about american constitutional democracy as the founders created it, but not just that. We want to understand the ideas that inspired the founders as well as those they disagreed with. We want to understand public shortcomings as well as accomplishm
Welcome to class. Over the course of this semester so far we have seen how appalachia perhaps to a greater degree than any other region is defined to the world and in the minds of its residents by outsiders. We have seen for example how industrialists employed the negative stereotypes of violent hillbillies to rationalize the seizure of thousands of acres of land on the boundary between kentucky and West Virginia. The image of appalachia as an impoverished and backwards area continues to haunt the region to this day. Indeed, many residents have absorbed and inverted a negative stereotype and constructed new identities for themselves based upon how they think they are perceived. A classic example is the recent bestselling book, hillbilly elegy, a book we will turn to in this lecture. For these reasons, it is beholden on us i think to understand how appalachian stereotypes have evolved over time and have been mobilized in different circumstances for the benefit of outsiders and those who
Welcome to class. Over the course of this semester so far we have seen how appalachia perhaps to a greater degree than any other region is defined to the world and in the minds of its residents by outsiders. We have seen for example how industrialists employed the negative stereotypes of violent hillbillies to rationalize the seizure of thousands of acres of land on the boundary between kentucky and West Virginia. The image of appalachia as an impoverished and backwards area continues to haunt the region to this day. Indeed, many residents have absorbed and inverted a negative stereotype and constructed new identities for themselves based upon how they think they are perceived. A classic example is the recent bestselling book, hillbilly elegy, a book we will turn to in this lecture. For these reasons, it is beholden on us i think to understand how appalachian stereotypes have evolved over time and have been mobilized in different circumstances for the benefit of outsiders and those who
Impoverished and backward area continues to haunt the region to this day. Indeed, many residents have absorbed and inverted negative stereotypes of the region and its people and have constructed new identities for thems based upon how they think they are perceive asmed classic example of this, i think is the recent bestselling book hillbilly elegy a book well turn to later on in this lecture. For these reasons, it is beholden on us to understand how appalachia stereotypes have evolved over time and how theyve been mobilized for the benefit of outsiders and those who live here. I would like to start our story with a negative stereotype. I want to dissect a negative impassenger of appalachians in American Culture, beginning in the mid to late 19th century. Among the oldest and perhaps most persistent aspects of the outside worlds view of the people of the mountain south is their cultural and economic backwardness, supposed backwardness. Edgar allen poe set one of his early short stories
It up from atlanta. It is a great feel and repurchase will support david and Atlanta History Centers ability to do this programming. David and i talked tonight, please submit her questions into the queue and day. Well get as many of those as we possibly can in the event time we have with us tonight. We briefly introduced David Hackett fisher. He needs very little introduction with our audience. David Hackett Fischer is a University Professor and professor of history and narrative at Brandeis University in massachusetts. He is an author of numerous books including the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner of Washington Crossing and chaplain stream. In 2015, he got the literature award for Lifetime Achievement and military writing. He is going to start off tonight talking a little about the book, the premise of it and then will move to questions. Thank you so much for being with us tonight. It is a pleasure to be with you. Would you like to just tell us a little bit about your book. The premise of