All That Is Native & Fine: The Politics of Culture in an American Region (-25th Anniversary)

Description

In the American imagination| “Appalachia” designates more than a geographical region. It evokes fiddle tunes| patchwork quilts| split-rail fences| and all the other artifacts that decorate a cherished romantic region in the American mind. In this classic work| David Whisnant challenges this view of Appalachia (and consequently a broader imaginative tendency) by exploring connections between the comforting simplicity of cultural myth and the troublesome complexities of cultural history.
Looking at the work of ballad hunters and collectors| folk and settlement school founders| folk festival promoters| and other culture workers| Whisnant examines a process of intentional and systematic cultural intervention that had–and still has–far-reaching consequences. He opens the way into a more sophisticated understanding of the politics of culture in Appalachia and other regions. In a new foreword for this twenty-fifth anniversary edition| Whisnant reflects on how he came to write this book| how readers responded to it| and how some of its central concerns have animated his later work.