Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930

By Ronald D. Eller

Book Overview

Winner of the W.D. Weatherford Award from the Appalachian Studies Association, this book provides an examination of the social and economic history of the Appalachian South from 1880 to 1930, describing the revolutionary changes in mountain life as the region was swept up in the American drive toward industrial maturity.

"The first systematic study of industrialization/modernization in Appalachia and the shape of the mountain economy since 1880. . . . it has been well worth the wait. A terrific book A pleasure, a delight to read." -Henry D. Shapiro

"As a benchmark book should, this one will stimulate the imagination and industry of future researchers as well as wrapping up the results of the last two decades of research. . . . Eller's greatest achievement results from his successful fusion of scholarly virtues with literary ones. The book is comprehensive, but not overlong. It is readable but not superficial. The reader who reads only one book in a lifetime on Appalachia cannot do better than to choose this one. . . . No one will be able to ignore it except those who refuse to confront the uncomfortable truths about American society and culture that Appalachia's history conveys." -John A. Williams, Appalachian Journal

"Eller's book is an effective combination of scholarly diligence and passionate concern for his native region. It raises some important questions about the study of Appalachian history and culture." -James C. Cobb, Appalachian Journal

". . . offers a thesis which can only appear revolutionary to generations of Americans nurtured on the myths and stereotypes about Appalachia. . . . The continuing poverty and misery characteristic of the region during the twentieth century, Eller argues, resulted not from 'supposed inadequacies of a pathological culture' which ill equipped mountain people for modern life, but rather from the actual process of modernization brought about by the rapid intrusion after 1880 of first the lumber barons and then coal mine operators." -Durwood Dunn, Tennessee Historical Quarterly

" The book] is a sensitive analysis of five crucial decades in the Appalachian South's history. Ultimately, it is a damning indictment of industrial capitalism. Eller, however, is no polemicist. He is a thorough historian who writes with enviable grace and whose work deserves a larger audience than that afforded by scholarly historical circles." --Southern Exposure

"Attractively written and illustrated, this carefully researched study provides a provocative, fresh, and generally persuasive explanation for Appalachian poverty." --Choice

"In this definitive history, Eller traces the chronic poverty of the region to the rise of industrialization between 1880 and 1930." -Mother Jones, May/June 1999

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870493418
• ISBN13: 9780870493416
• Release Date: September 1982
• Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
• Length: 298 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930

Ronald Eller shows extensive research into the history of how the cultural, economic, and industrial landscapes of southern appalachia was changed through the demands of its renewable and non-renewable natural resources. This book is highly recommended to individuals who are both anxious and curious to strengthen their knowledge about the exploitation of labor and natural resources in southern appalachia.

Why Appalachia industrialized, but failed to modernize.

Mention "Appalachia" today and the idea of a "backward" people in an impoverished region left behind by progress comes to mind. When it was published in 1982, Ronald D. Eller's Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930, was the first study to argue that, contrary to this common perception, modernization had not passed the region by. Until Eller's no other scholarly study had address the industrialization of Appalachia. What Eller discovered was that Appalachia had indeed passed through a dynamic period of transformation but that as a result "the mountaineers had lost the independence and self-determination of their ancestors, without becoming full participants in the benefits of the modern work." (242) What remained after the boom years was a society trying to cling to tradition but unable to afford the trappings of modern life. Profits generated from the extraction of timber and coal had flowed into the coffers of outside investors. It is Eller's thesis that while Appalachia had undergone industrialization, the region failed to modernize. He argues that in order to understand the reasons, Southern Appalachia's industrialization should be viewed in a national context. Profits came from the extraction of mountain resources at the lowest possible cost for national markets. This view is buttressed by Gavin Wright's (1996) economic interpretation of the South as a low wage economy within a larger economy. Eller agrees with this interpretation. Like Wright, he argues industrialization was accomplished with cheap labor. Eller's treatise spans the years 1880 to 1930. Prior to 1880 the area's remoteness and inaccessibility had delayed development. In chapter one, "On the Eve of a Remarkable Development," Eller paints an idyllic Jeffersonian agrarian scene of pre-industrial life in the mountains. Isolated by geography, "the mountain landscape favored the establishment of five forms of settlement - gap, cove, hollow, ridge, and meadow communities - but cove and hollow settlements predominated throughout the region."(8) The topography limited communication and transportation. Subsistence farming was the order and what agrarian economy existed was limited. "By 1880, Appalachia contained a greater concentration of noncommercial family farms than any other area of the nation."(16) A distinct mountain culture shaped communities and people were self sufficient and independent. It was a patriarchal society where families depended on each other and kinship relationships determined social, religious and political order.(30) Urban centers were few and, except for the villages and towns, society was ordered according to status rather than class. Respectability was valued within the community. Unfortunately the idyllic life that Eller describes was on the threshold of destruction. Two forces were directed toward Appalachia. One, capitalistic, was aimed at the riches of the land, and the other, intellectual, t

Ellers monumental text

This text was one of the first books to explore the industrialization of Appalachia. It set the field for much of the current discouse that is being developed in Appalachian History. It is very well written and provides a good list of sources for additional study.