Bowling Green, Ky. - Anthony Harkins, assistant professor of history at Western Kentucky University, has won a national book award for "Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon."

Dr. Harkins is the seventh annual winner of the Susanne M. Glasscock Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Humanities Scholarship. The award is given by the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University.

The national book award includes a $1,000 prize and an invitation to give a public presentation on his current research at the Glasscock Center in January. Dr. Harkins will discuss the history of urban conceptions of Middle America.

He also has been invited to give a similar talk, "Flyover Country and the Evolution of the Idea of Two Americas," at the Yale University Agrarian Studies Program colloquium series in October.

"Hillbilly," published by Oxford University Press, won the 2004 John G. Cawelti Award honorable mention for Outstanding Book in American Culture Studies given by the American Culture Association.

"Hillbilly" is being published in paperback this month. In connection with the paperback release, Dr. Harkins will kick off Western Kentucky University Libraries' "Kentucky Live" series at Barnes and Noble at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8. The program is free and open to the public.

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For information, contact Anthony Harkins at (270) 745-3149.