An important contribution.
~Ronald Lewis, author of Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields
Blood in the Hills is the first systematic exploration of the myths and realities of violence in the Southern Appalachian region. An important work for scholars and students of Appalachian History that will add much to the field.
~Daniel S. Pierce, author of Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France
The contributors to Blood in the Hills at once challenge the persistent myth of a culturally backward and inherently violent Appalachia while looking squarely at violence in the region to understand its complexity, sources, and consequences from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. Written by senior scholars and rising stars, most of them historians, these studies provide deep and critical insights into the role of violence in regional and national history and the political, economic, racial, and religious conflicts that engender it. While they challenge pejorative representations, they also provide an indispensable antidote to the all-too-prevalent romanticization of Appalachia.
~Dwight Billings. author of Back Talk from Appalachia: Confronting Stereotypes
Some of the region's brightest young scholars confront old images and received theories about mountain culture and offer new insights to violent episodes in the region's history. In so doing they tie that violence to 'deeper tensions within the fabric of American society.' A must read for those who seek to understand Appalachia as a window to the American experience rather than an exception to it.
~Ronald D Eller, author of Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945
Stewart and 13 other contributors challenge the resulting stereotypes in essays that explore instances of violence that occured in the 18th-20th centuries.... Highly recommended.
~Choice
Stewart challenges the myth of intrinsic agression... seek[ing] to understand, but not to underplay, the role of violence in Appalachia.
~Manchester Enterprise
Prompts us to more carefully reconsider the role of violence in other American regions and cultures—a quality that makes it easily recommendable to a wide range of popular readers and scholars alike.
~North Carolina Historical Review
Stewart seeks to understand, but not to underplay, the role of violence in Appalachia.
~Bristol Herald Courier
The essays offer 'texture and complexity,' a fresh look at a topic that has stubbornly resisted popular revision.
~Martin Crawford, The Register of Kentucky Historical Society
Blood in the Hills is an amazing contribution that should be read by historians and public policymakers if we are hopeful of ever reaching real solutions to the problems plaguing the region's lingering violence, poverty, and political corruption.
~William Gorby, West Virginia History
[A] valuable and praiseworthy volume.
~The Journal of American History
This collection adds another important histiographical layer to the study of violence in Appalachia.
~Stephanie M. Lang, University of Kentucky
Blood in the Hills is recommended for anyone studying Appalachia, especially North Carolina and Kentucky, as well as for those interested in post-Civil War violence in America.
~Georgia Libraries Quarterly
