"In the late twentieth century, residents of the Blue Ridge mountains in western North Carolina fiercely resisted certain environmental efforts, even while launching aggressive initiatives of their own. Kathryn Newfont provides context for those events by examining the environmental history of this region over the course of three hundred years, identifying what she calls commons environmentalism--a cultural strain of conservation in American history that has gone largely unexplored. Efforts in the 1970s to expand federal wilderness areas in the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests generated strong opposition. For many mountain residents the idea of unspoiled wilderness seemed economically unsound, historically dishonest, and elitist. Newfont shows that local people's sense of commons environmentalism required access to the forests that they viewed as semipublic places for hunting, fishing, and working. Policies that removed large tracts from use were perceived as 'enclosure' and resisted. Incorporating deep archival work and years of interviews and conversations with Appalachian residents, Blue Ridge Commons reveals a tradition of people building robust forest protection movements on their own terms."--p. [4] of cover.

A timely study of change in a complex environment, Where There Are Mountains explores the relationship between human inhabitants of the southern Appalachians and their environment. Incorporating a wide variety of disciplines in the natural and social sciences, the study draws information from several viewpoints and spans more than four hundred years of geological, ecological, anthropological, and historical development in the Appalachian region. The book begins with a description of the indigenous Mississippian culture in 1500 and ends with the destructive effects of industrial logging and dam building during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Donald Edward Davis discusses the degradation of the southern Appalachians on a number of levels, from the general effects of settlement and industry to the extinction of the American chestnut due to blight and logging in the early 1900s. This portrait of environmental destruction is echoed by the human struggle to survive in one of our nation's poorest areas. The farming, livestock raising, dam building, and pearl and logging industries that have gradually destroyed this region have also been the livelihood of the Appalachian people. The author explores the sometimes conflicting needs of humans and nature in the mountains while presenting impressive and comprehensive research on the increasingly threatened environment of the southern Appalachians.

"I shall never, no never, forget that eventful night when accompanied by one courier, my Adjutant Edwards and Sergeant Major, both being wounded, I full of grief and bitterness, rode to the barns in our rear and saw with tears in my eyes, my brave fellows from away over the mountains in West Virginia, laid out in windrows, torn and bleeding. I shall never forget that night or the next morning's parade when I could muster but 96 enlisted men. Brave fellows, not a slave holder among them." Lt/Col. Vincent A. Witcher-34th Battalion Virginia Cavalry

Provides essential information on the federal wilderness areas of eight states including South Carolina.

"This work is the source for scholars of communication, social and cultural history and the popular arts, as well as devoted fans of radio history. New entries include information on such topics as gender discrimination in radio; holidays on the airwaves; husband and wife teams; minstrel shows, vaudeville, and burlesque; Scopes "monkey" trial broadcasts; and super heroes"--Provided by publisher.