A night flight from Des Moines to Pittsburgh and a tiny rental car at the airport ("Mister, nobody ever wants to rent a compact Hundyai!"), followed by a fitful sleep at night just off the Interstate in a smoke-encrusted room with Ontario high school kids playing hackysack on the landing above. The next morning was gorgeous as I headed toward southern Ohio. Most people don't realize that a good part of the state is in Appalachia. Appalachia emerged as a region targeted for assistance from government and foundations partly as a result of deals made by John Kennedy when re ran for president in 1960. In return for support from powerful legislators from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, he set up the Appalachian Regional Commission and eventually included a very large area running from the far north to the deep south. Before that, most people associated the poverty of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia with the word Appalachia. Having all the counties from so many states lumps some very diverse regions together, and some inhabitants would rather not be included. It is strange to look back on the academic literature that emerged during the period of road building, infusion of federal and foundation money decades ago. There was a long-running debate whether Appalachians constituted an actual ethnic group. The essays show the tension between the idea of Appalachia as different, as an exotic "other" and the commonality of Appalachian traits and values with that of mainstream America. Appalachia qualifies for certain kinds of assistance, and there is a large industry of non-profits trying to right some of the wrongs inflicted on the region by decades of a colonial dependence on coal and the family fiefs that ran many of the coal counties.

When the mines automated, closed or otherwise cut back on human capital in the 1970's, the unemployment rate surged as did associated evils such as spouse abuse, alcoholism, and a pervasive hopelessness among those who had depended on coal for their livelihood. Although the high unemployment rate and out-migration continues to the present, many groups are trying to reverse these trends. The folks I met with and interviewed all were accepted within their communities. Some were better known nationally or regionally rather than locally, but none were seen as "poverty carpetbaggers" or outsiders, as I probably was.