Three East Tennessee Communities and the Elusive History of an American Region

FAIN: FB-51950-05

Mark Tollie Banker
Webb School of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN 37923-3307)

Thirty Years of Appalachian Studies scholarship reveals that the Appalachian region is more diverse and its history more dynamic than long assumed. In this project, I will incorporate those insights for the first time into a history of the important Appalachian sub-region of East Tennessee. My goal is to complete an accessible historical survey for publication by the University of TN Press that will offer my fellow East Tennesseans provocative insights into our elusive, sometimes troubled past. This window on the complex, often controversial consequences of economic and cultural modernization in this distinctive Appalachian sub-region will, I believe, also prove valuable to a broader scholarly readership.