Steven Stoll offers a fresh, provocative account of Appalachia, from the earliest European settlers, through crucial episodes such as the Whiskey Rebellion and the founding of West Virginia, and the arrival of timber and coal companies that set off a devastating "scramble for Appalachia."--

Contemporary ancestors: from Daniel Boone to Hill-Billy -- Provision grounds: on capitalism and the Atlantic peasantry -- Rye Rebellion: why Alexander Hamilton invaded the mountains -- Mountaineers are always free: on losing land and livelihood -- Interlude: Agrarian twilight: the art of dispossession -- Captured garden: subsistence under industrial capitalism -- Negotiated settlements: the fate of the commons and the commoners