The Road to Poverty: The Making of Wealth and Hardship in Appalachia

Intended for social scientists, historians, and readers interested in social change and social poverty, this book examines the roots of entrenched poverty in Appalachia. It is both a social history of the creation of chronic poverty (and wealth) in Clay County, KY and an explication of how economic markets, cultural strategies, and the state interact to shape local society. By linking a longitudinal study of a single place to broader understandings of the historical development of the capitalist world system, this book contributes to policy discussions of the underlying causes of persistent rural poverty and reasons for the chronic failure of governmental programs to alleviate such poverty. In doing this study the authors have assembled probably the longest running set of longitudinal data currently available on an American rural population as well as the most extensive body of data available for a persistently poor community in the United States.

Author: Dwight B. Billings, Kathleen M. Blee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 01/28/2000
Pages: 452
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 1.01d
ISBN: 9780521655460

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/1999 pg. 1362
Library Journal 09/15/1999 pg. 92
Booklist 09/01/1999 pg. 38
Choice 09/01/2000 pg. 225

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