Conclusion

The conclusion examines present-day perceptions of Appalachia to illustrate the ongoing harm caused by the persistence of stereotypes regarding Appalachians’ literacy practices. It argues that, by reframing Appalachian history, we can begin to see that, while the current circumstances in the region are indeed a product of history, they are not a product of the history presented in popular narratives about the region—narratives that attribute any negative development in Appalachia to the natural consequence of Appalachia’s supposed long-standing poverty and ignorance. Recovering Appalachia’s literacy history gives us a new lens through which to examine the region’s experiences, expectations, and potential futures.

Recovering Literacy

This chapter describes the archival project of the book and the methodology employed. It explains how the study defines literacy, how the newspapers it used were selected, and in what ways its findings can be seen as representative of the region as a whole. The chapter also provides a brief overview of each newspaper surveyed in the study.

Schooling Appalachia

This chapter examines schooling in the Appalachian region. Schooling features in many of the correspondent columns as well as in pieces written by the editors. In particular, the newspapers illustrate that a thriving industry of ad hoc private education institutions was active in eastern Kentucky, a fact seldom recognized in histories of the area. While modern studies of schooling and literacy frequently cite public school data to suggest that Kentuckians were not supportive of schooling, the newspapers demonstrate that many of these supposedly unschooled children were in fact receiving an education from privately run institutions that some of the editors touted as superior to public schools. The newspapers also demonstrate vibrant community support for education.

Introduction

The introduction details the ways in which Appalachia has come to represent heart of “Trump Country.” It argues that these representations trade on a long history of stereotypes and assumptions about the region. In particular, the introduction describes how Appalachia is represented as illiterate, unschooled, and textless, a representation that dates from the 1880s and served the needs of both the extract industries and northern missionaries bent on “improving” the region. The introduction outlines the key theoretical frames for the remainder of the book, including Deborah Brandt’s theory of literacy sponsorship and Benedict Anderson’s notion of imagined communities.

Writing a Community

This chapter examines community writing, the most direct evidence in the newspapers of community literacy practices. Because each paper relied on local correspondents to write in with news from far-flung communities, the correspondent columns offer a glimpse into what local writers viewed as particularly important events. In these reports, there is ample representation of literacy practices, and the attention with which these are reported illustrates the value placed on literacy in these communities. The chapter also considers how the correspondents interacted with one another and with the editor. The editors served as recruiters and enablers of literacy, to use Deborah Brandt’s terms, but also as suppressors who ultimately exercised control over what correspondents could say in print.

Sponsoring Literacy in Appalachia

Using Deborah Brandt’s theory of literacy sponsorship, this chapter examines newspaper editors’ efforts to cultivate an imagined community of readers. It illustrates the ways in which the editors taught, modeled, and regulated literacy via discussions of appropriate reading and writing practices. It also argues that advertisements for texts of all kinds debunk the idea of a textless Appalachia and discusses what the editors’ choices of advertisements suggest about how they imagined their audiences.