Howell, Benita J., ed. Culture, Environment, and Conservation in the Appalachian South. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
Focusing on the mountainous area from northern Alabama to West Virginia, this important volume explores the historic and contemporary interrelations between culture and environment in a region that has been plagued by land misuse and damaging stereotypes of its people. Committed to taking account of humankind’s place in the environment, this collection is a timely contribution to debates over land use and conservation. Debunking the nature/culture dichotomy, contributors examine how physical space is transformed into culturally constituted “place.” Powerful case studies recount past displacement of local populations in the name of progress or conservation and track threatened communities’ struggles to maintain their claims to place in the face of mountaintop removal of coal or a power company’s plans to export electricity from Appalachia to distant urban centers, for example. Contributors also record successful community planning ventures that have achieved creative solutions to seemingly intransigent conflicts between demands for economic wealth and environmental health. (Text adapted from University of Illinois Press website.)