Where There Are Mountains

by Davis, Donald Edward

• ISBN13: 9780820324944
• ISBN10: 0820324949
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

A timely study of change in a complex environment,Where There Are Mountainsexplores 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.

Author Biography

Donald Edward Davis is an associate professor of sociology at Dalton State College. He is the author of Ecophilosophy: A Field Guide to the Literature and coauthor of Hiking Trails of the Smokies.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xv
1 Apalatchi: Naming the Mountains	1	(8)
2 Mississippia: Native Appalachia	9	(26)
3 Apalachee: Spanish Appalachia	35	(22)
4 Kituah: Cherokee Appalachia	57	(34)
5 Southwestern Mountains: Frontier Appalachia	91	(32)
6 Alleghenia: Antebellum Appalachia	123	(38)
7 Appalachia: Making the Modern Landscape	161	(38)
8 Conclusion: Nature, Culture, History	199	(16)
Notes	215	(36)
Bibliography	251	(60)
Index	311