Appalachia's Path to Dependency Rethinking a Regions Economic History, 1730-1940

Salstrom, Paul

ISBN 10: 0813108683 / ISBN 13: 9780813108681

Published by University Press of Kentucky, c.1994,, 1994

About this Item

University Press of Kentucky, c.1994, 1st.trade paperbk.prtg., 204pp., F $.

Seller Inventory # 64847

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Appalachia's Path to Dependency Rethinking a Regions Economic History, 1730-1940
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky, c.1994,
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813108683
• ISBN 13: 9780813108681
• Binding: paperback,
• Condition: Fine,

About this title

Synopsis

In Appalachia's Path to Dependency, Paul Salstrom examines the evolution of economic life over time in southern Appalachia. Moving away from the colonial model to an analysis based on dependency, he exposes the complex web of factors―regulation of credit, industrialization, population growth, cultural values, federal intervention―that has worked against the region.

Salstrom argues that economic adversity has resulted from three types of disadvantages: natural, market, and political. The overall context in which Appalachia's economic life unfolded was one of expanding United States markets and, after the Civil War, of expanding capitalist relations.

Covering Appalachia's economic history from early white settlement to the end of the New Deal, this work is not simply an economic interpretation but draws as well on other areas of history. Whereas other interpretations of Appalachia's economy have tended to seek social or psychological explanations for its dependency, this important work compels us to look directly at the region's economic history. This regional perspective offers a clear-eyed view of Appalachia's path in the future.

About the Author

Paul Salstrom is associate professor of history at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and author of From Pioneering to Persevering: Family Farming in Indiana to 1880.