Publications:
My book Hillbilly: A Cultural History
of an American Icon has recently been published by Oxford University
Press (2004). Drawing on a wide array of popular culture genres that
featured hillbilly images including literature, country music, comic
strips and cartoons, films, television shows, local festivals and even
the Internet, I examine the evolution of one of the most pervasive and
enduring icons of twentieth century American popular culture. Although
often overlooked or dismissed as a base image of mass entertainment,
the hillbilly, I contend, has served as a continually negotiated mythic
space through which modern Americans have attempted to define themselves
and their national identity and to reconcile the past and the present.
In addtion, I have published related articles on the hillbilly image
in Appalachian Journal, The Journal of Appalachian Studies and Historically
Speaking (forthcoming, 2004). I am also the Co-Editor of the Media section
of the Encylopedia of Appalachia (Univ. of Tennessee Press, forthcoming)
and the author of entries on “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Humor,”
and “Public Broadcasting” in the Oxford Companion to United
States History.
