Appalachian History

We post a new episode of Appalachian History weekly podcast every Sunday. You can start listening right away by clicking the podcast icon over on the right side of your screen. If you’d rather grab the show off itunes for later listening, click here: We open today’s show with a look at what was the [...]

Rebecca Latimer Felton, in her customary way, saw right through the political machinations that led to her officially becoming the first woman to serve in the United States Senate. When Georgia Senator Thomas E. Watson died on September 26, 1922, Governor Thomas Hardwick appointed a replacement to serve until a special election could be held. [...]

It’s a great winged beast, with scales like a reptile and the wings and talons of a great bird. No. It’s half bird, half wildcat with yellow and black stripes. No. It’s a sable-eyed muskrat with a tuxedo front. It’s the Snallygaster, and for several years in the late 1920s and early 1930s it caused [...]

In November 1931, as chairman of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners, well known author Theodore Dreiser organized a special committee to infiltrate Kentucky’s Harlan coal mines to investigate allegations of crimes and abuses against striking miners. The self-appointed group of left-leaning writers (including Theodore Dreiser, Lewis Mumford, John Dos Passos, and [...]

The following review of Alex Bledsoe’s new novel, ‘The Hum and the Shiver,’ was written by Tina LoTufo for Chapter16.org, ‘a community of Tennessee writers, readers and passersby.’ In The Hum and the Shiver, the Reverend Craig Chess is a young minister with a problem: his first church assignment—the Triple Springs Methodist Church—is located in [...]