This is a collection of thirteen essays, not a narrative history. None of the essays deal with the region’s wars or even union struggles, so we have experienced a whole lot more violence than considered here! Instead the essays focus on inter-racial conflicts, including race riots; feuds; murders; manhunts; assassinations, and moonshining. " 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. "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 romanizations of Appalachia."--Dwight Billings. ""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. The editor, Bruce E. Steward, is a history professor at Appalachian State University.
Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press, a 2018 paperback edition of a 2012 release. 412 pages with an Index and photos. Trade paperback,