Ramp Hollow

The Ordeal of Appalachia

By: Steven Stoll

Narrated by: Brian Sutherland

How the United States underdeveloped Appalachia

Appalachia - among the most storied and yet least understood regions in America - has long been associated with poverty and backwardness. But how did this image arise, and what exactly does it mean? In Ramp Hollow, Steven Stoll launches an original investigation into the history of Appalachia and its place in US history, with a special emphasis on how generations of its inhabitants lived, worked, survived, and depended on natural resources held in common.

Ramp Hollow traces the rise of the Appalachian homestead and how its self-sufficiency resisted dependence on money and the industrial society arising elsewhere in the United States - until, beginning in the 19th century, extractive industries kicked off a "scramble for Appalachia" that left struggling homesteaders dispossessed of their land. As the men disappeared into coal mines and timber camps, and their families moved into shantytowns or deeper into the mountains, the commons of Appalachia were, in effect, enclosed, and the fate of the region was sealed.

Ramp Hollow takes a provocative look at Appalachia and the workings of dispossession around the world by upending our notions about progress and development. Stoll ranges widely from literature to history to economics in order to expose a devastating process whose repercussions we still feel today.

©2017 Steven Stoll (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Hybrid extraordinaire

Economic theory exemplified by the historical geography of Appalachia, as a hybrid treatment quite a "home run."

Amazing book, terrible narrator!

So I felt bad writing this because I think this book is incredible in every way. I've been searching for a book like this since I moved to Appalachia from the west coast and became curious about the economic realities for the generations of people living here. However, you'd be better off reading the book or getting the Epub version and having Speechify read it. To be honest my AI robo reader does a better job inflecting than this narrator does. I'm truly beguiled because there are plenty of good narrators but this guy misses the mark. He doesnt have a human element that would really lend itself to this book. I ultimately had to return this book but will read it by other means!

Say it correctly

It’s a central principle of respect that you pronounce people’s names properly. Unfortunately, the narrator mispronounces “Appalachia,” choosing to use the pronunciation developed by ivory-tower intellectuals instead of the pronunciation used by people from Appalachia. It is deeply disrespectful.

Very Interesting

I like that the book makes clear the connections between historical happenings centuries ago that are not traditionally taught, shared and still affect our culture and government. History truly does repeat itself. "Nothing is new under the sun."

Content A; Performance F-

Well researched and well written. Too bad the narrator spoils it with a soul-crushing bad delivery. The CIA doesn’t need to waterboard terrorists. Just have this guy read to them; they’ll talk.