Hillsville Remembered

Rountree has written a timely, nuanced consideration of how we remember and pass on our histories. This book may focus on the Hillsville courthouse shoot-out, but its examination is relevant to any event that makes its way into the cultural imagination. Rountree makes the case that history shapes us, not just because of what happens but because of how those stories get told—and why we tell them the ways that we do.

~Amanda Hayes, Associate Professor of English, Kent State University at Tuscarawas

Until now, serious academic research on the notorious Hillsville shoot-out of 1912 has been sparse. Rountree's work makes an important, worthwhile contribution to the field of Appalachian studies by separating and compartmentalizing the competing, and often contradictory, rhetoric(s) of remembering. Fiercely argued and brilliantly crafted, this book is a must for those interested in rhetoric's connection to Appalachian history.

~Todd D. Snyder, author of The Rhetoric of Appalachian Identity and 12 Rounds in Lo's Gym: Boxing and Manhood in Appalachia

In Hillsville Remembered, Travis A. Rountree examines the public memory of the 'Hillsville Massacre,' a gun battle that left five dead in a courtroom in Carroll County, Virginia, in 1912. Sparked by local politics and personal rivalries, the shoot-out briefly became a national sensation, with newspapers treating the killings as evidence of the supposed backwardness of rural white communities in southern Appalachia. Rountree analyzes multiple representations of the event, from folk ballads to contemporary museum exhibits and a remarkable community play performed in the courtroom where the shootings took place. In vivid detail, he shows how both locals and outsiders have engaged with images of Appalachian violence. These acts of memory have often amplified debilitating stereotypes of the region from the era when Americans first defined Appalachia as Other. Yet, as Rountree demonstrates, when remembering is rooted in community experience, these performances also hold the promise of transcendence and healing.

~Andrew Denson, author of Monuments to Absence: Cherokee Removal and the Contest over Southern Memory