Hillbilly

Zusatztext "Distilling truths and untruths about a great American archetype! Hillbilly is insightful and respectful without draining out all the fun. Anthony Harkins writes entertaining yet sophisticated analysis! free of ten-dollar words and other academic moonshine."-Scott A. Sandage! Carnegie Mellon University Informationen zum Autor Anthony Harkins is an Assistant Professor in History at Western Kentucky University. Klappentext In this pioneering work of cultural history! historian Anthony Harkins argues that the hillbilly-in his various guises of "briar hopper!" "brush ape!" "ridge runner!" and "white trash"-has been viewed by mainstream Americans simultaneously as a violent degenerate who threatens the modernorder and as a keeper of traditional values of family! home! and physical production! and thus symbolic of a nostalgic past free of the problems of contemporary life. "Hillbilly" signifies both rugged individualism and stubborn backwardness! strong family and kin networks but also inbreeding andbloody feuds. Spanning film! literature! and the entire expanse of American popular culture! from D. W. Griffith to hillbilly music to the Internet! Harkins illustrates how the image of the hillbilly has consistently served as both a marker of social derision and regional pride. He traces thecorresponding changes in representations of the hillbilly from late-nineteenth century America! through the great Depression! the mass migrations of Southern Appalachians in the 1940s and 1950s! the War on Poverty in the mid 1960s! and to the present day. Harkins also argues that images ofhillbillies have played a critical role in the construction of whiteness and modernity in twentieth century America. Richly illustrated with dozens of photographs! drawings! and film and television stills! this unique book stands as a testament to the enduring place of the hillbilly in the Americanimagination. Zusammenfassung This well-illustrated and wide-ranging study examines a pervasive and enduring icon of American popular culture. Featured in Literature, country music, comic strips, film and televsion shows, and even the internet, the hillbilly has served a mythic space through which Americans have attempted to define their personal and national identity and to reconcile the past and present....

"Distilling truths and untruths about a great American archetype, Hillbilly is insightful and respectful without draining out all the fun. Anthony Harkins writes entertaining yet sophisticated analysis, free of ten-dollar words and other academic moonshine."--Scott A. Sandage, Carnegie Mellon University

Auteur
Anthony Harkins is an Assistant Professor in History at Western Kentucky University.

Texte du rabat

In this pioneering work of cultural history, historian Anthony Harkins argues that the hillbilly-in his various guises of "briar hopper," "brush ape," "ridge runner," and "white trash"-has been viewed by mainstream Americans simultaneously as a violent degenerate who threatens the modern
order and as a keeper of traditional values of family, home, and physical production, and thus symbolic of a nostalgic past free of the problems of contemporary life. "Hillbilly" signifies both rugged individualism and stubborn backwardness, strong family and kin networks but also inbreeding and
bloody feuds. Spanning film, literature, and the entire expanse of American popular culture, from D. W. Griffith to hillbilly music to the Internet, Harkins illustrates how the image of the hillbilly has consistently served as both a marker of social derision and regional pride. He traces the
corresponding changes in representations of the hillbilly from late-nineteenth century America, through the great Depression, the mass migrations of Southern Appalachians in the 1940s and 1950s, the War on Poverty in the mid 1960s, and to the present day. Harkins also argues that images of
hillbillies have played a critical role in the construction of whiteness and modernity in twentieth century America. Richly illustrated with dozens of photographs, drawings, and film and television stills, this unique book stands as a testament to the enduring place of the hillbilly in the American
imagination.