Struggle of Mountaineers, Profit-Seeking Forces Subject of Discussion at Library
Guilford’s Steven Stoll will discuss his new book Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia at the Guilford Free Library on Wednesday, July 18 at 7 p.m.
Ramp Hollow recasts the story of Appalachia as a complex struggle between mountaineers and profit-seeking forces from outside the region. Drawing powerful connections between Appalachia and other agrarian societies around the world, Stoll demonstrates the vitality of a peasant way of life that mixes farming with commerce, but is not dominated by a market mind-set. His original investigation, ranging widely from history to literature, art, and economics, seeks to question assumptions about progress and development, and exposes the legacy of dispossession and its repercussions today.
Stoll is a professor of history at Fordham University and the author of The Great Delusion and Larding the Lean Earth. His writing has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, Lapham’s Quarterly, and the New Haven Review.
Books will be available for sale and signing. This program, sponsored by the Friends of the Guilford Free Library, is free and open to all. Call 203-453-8282 to register.