About the Book:Winner of the 2009 Weatherford Award for Best Non-Fiction Book about Appalachia! From Jewish publishers to Appalachian poets, Green’s cultural study reveals the role of “mountain whites” in American racial history. Part One (1880-1935) explores the networks that created American pluralism, revealing Appalachia’s essential role in shaping America’s understanding of African Americans, Anglos, Jews, Southerners, and Immigrants. Drawing upon archival research and deft close readings of poems, Part Two (1934-1946) delves into the inner-workings of literary history and shows how diverse alliances used four books of poetry about Appalachia to change America’s notion of race, region, and pluralism.