Lots of other little theegions that really give ozarks region a lot of diverse, physically speaking. My interest in the history of the ozarks dates back to my undergraduate days. I went to school in the age of the ozarks, a Little College called i had grown up in the ozarks. I just didnt really know it. Identity is a funny thing. When i grew up, i associated with the ozarks with places that advertised them. They kind of branded themselves as part of the ozarks. We watched Television Channels out of springfield, missouri, they were always talking about the ozarks. I thought thats where the ozarks must have been, around springfield, missouri. I remember, i was an undergrad in the library at lyon college, and i came across this book written by a geographer named milton lafferty. I opened it up and there was a map of the ozarks, the borders. I discovered i grew up in the ozarks, but had never really i knew i grew up in the hills, that we were hill people, but i Never Associated myself with this label. That was almost 30 years ago. I devoted my life to studying the history and culture of the ozarks, and try to define what that means, and trying to sort reality in myth and the story of the ozarks. Most of the 19th century settlers, especially the precivil war settlers, came from appalachia, or the greater upland south. , anywhere from the piedmont of North Carolina easterne tennessee, to kentucky, southwestern virginia, what is now west virginia, northern alabama northern , georgia, greater upland south areas really supplied the majority of settlers. You transmit those cultural practices, religious practices, everything is bundled up in culture. It gets transmitted from places like east tennessee and Eastern Kentucky to the ozarks. We share a lot in common with that region. The culture of the region has been defined largely by people of Northern European descent who were protestant. Not just protestant, typically evangelical protestant methodists, baptists, they were for the most part rural, at least a few small towns and cities in the 19th century. They kind of transmitted that culture, whatever you want to call it. It is really sort of an american kind of culture that gets created in appalachia, middle tennessee, places like that. The scotch irish, the people of english descent, german descent, a handful of scandinavians thrown in, with cherokees and other native american groups. Slaves, free blacks, all of those people kind of create this upland south of culture. Of free range hurting of cattle and hogs, and hunting and trapping as crucial element of life, along with the religious practices that they bring. And their music, which tends to irish, with the german influences and some african influences. All of that gets transmitted from the hearth area in the upland south, east of mississippi, over to the ozarks. That is kind of the culture you get. The culture that people have come to associate with the ozarks, just in the national consciousness. It is the same culture that carries out corn whiskey making , thations, moon shining kind of stuff. It is a culture that could be violent. And it could be very closed minded. That also a culture kind of required a certain hardness and toughness to in a region like the ozarks, where much of it was kind of a rough and unrewarding place. And you had these kind of oases like northwest arkansas thrown in there. I think one of the things that has defined the ozarks, at least in the late 20th century and into the 21st century, is that the region did stay somewhat homogenous into the late 20th century. The region was one of the world why this one of the worlds places, still heavily evangelical protestant in religious orientation. Part of that stems from kind of not a lack of, but a shortage of Economic Opportunity in much of the ozarks. You dont get a lot of people moving into the ozarks. There is not a lot of dynamic social and cultural stuff going on because theres not a lot of dynamic economic stuff going on. The people tend to stay the same, generation after generation. Im not saying that they are not modernizing, that they are not driving model ts and listening to radios and stuff, but ethnically and religiously and culturally, there is a tendency to stay the same over generations. By the time you get into the latter half of the 20th century, you have the preservation of old old timeyic of music. Mandolins,als, fiddles, mountain music. It takes on the image of a place that time forgot. Even then, you were talking ,bout pockets of the ozarks because you had other places , quicklyhwest arkansas modernizing. In the last couple decades of the 20th century, into the 21st century, demographics have changed. Theres been a tremendous migration of people who dont come from the Northern European protestant heritage. Whether they are of hispanic descent, in northwest arkansas you have a large percentage of people of hispanic descent. The Marshall Lees who come in, people from africa and asia coming in. Some of them becoming chicken farmers in northwest arkansas and southwest missouri. Influx of people who have changed the demographics of the region over the last generation or two. In the same time, youve also opened up the region to an influx of retirees from the midwest and the north. Just in my lifetime, there has definitely been a major evolution in whatever the culture of the ozarks is. Im not even sure what that is anymore. We kind of hold onto the historical, cultural model. Like the rest of america, it is a place that very much is changing in recent years. Me, has alwayso , sort of an oasis. N the ozarks it is on the springfield plane, traditionally the most prosperous subregion of the ozarks. Days,hose earliest statesville was a beacon of progress. , arkansas civil war at the time of the civil war had three colleges. Three institutions of higher learning. Two of them were in washington county, one can fayetteville and one just outside of it. You had a lot of the states early political leaders were from the fayetteville area. The person who served as the chair of the Secession Convention in 1861 was a lawyer and judge from fayetteville. It has kind of had an outsized importance in the state of arkansas and in the ozarks in general. Half a dozen years after the civil war, the state of arkansas decides to put its Flagship University in fayetteville. You can lookpens, at statistics today, and the prosperity that comes with universities, and these Research Parks that surround them. That goes back to the 19th century. The university sort of created its own bubble of prosperity around it. Fayetteville has always been and insis in the ozarks arkansas. Of thearching theme trilogy, and it has been my theme for most of the books that i have done on the ozarks over years, isalmost 20 that the region is more of a microcosm of the United States as a whole than it is from isange, unique then it some strange, unique other that we can marvel at and look and how quaint and unusual it is. In academic terms, we use the term exceptionalism. My argument for a long time was inhe ozarks is not totality, it is not necessarily an exceptional place. It is special to me. It is my home. I had ancestors who showed up here 200 years ago, but i think it shares more in common with the general american historical narratives than it differs from that narrative. It is one of many regional big, broadon that American History theme. People who read it and dont know anything about the ozarks will recognize a lot of the things that we just know from American History. Little version of it going on in the ozarks. Our city tours staff recently traveled to fayetteville, arkansas, to learn about its rich history. Learn more about statesville and other stops on our tour. You are watching American History tv, all weekend every weekend on cspan 3. Monday night on the communicators, we are in las the Consumer Electronics show, where Tech Companies unveil new products and give insights as to what is ahead. The latest on robotic and drone technology, artificial intelligence, and sophisticated technology. Watch the communicators at 8 00 eastern on cspan 2. Tony smith talks about his book, why wilson matters. The origin of american liberal internationalism and its crisis today, in which he offers his thoughts on the impact of president Woodrow Wilson on american foreignpolicy from the 1940s to today. This was recorded at the Southern MethodistUniversity Center for president ial history in 2017. It is about 90 minutes. I want to tell you why we thought and i thought that tony would be an ideal person to bring in at the end of this year and this year of discussion. As you know, one of the worlds great Woodrow Wilson experts, in fact, i would say it one of the worlds Woodrow Wilson experts already teaches on our faculty. That is professor tom not, the other is tony smith. I choose my words very carefully, i found that in the age of trump, it is important to choose your words carefully so i want to tell you why i consider them to be both wilson experts but of a different quality. A different tone and tenor