Appalachia: Difference between revisions

 

Since Appalachia lacks definite physiographical or topographical boundaries, there has been some disagreement over what exactly the region encompasses. The most commonly used modern definition of Appalachia is the one initially defined by the [[Appalachian Regional Commission]] in 1965 and expanded over subsequent decades.<ref name=abramson1 /> The region defined by the Commission currently includes 420 counties and eight [[Independent city (Virginia)|independent cities]] in 13 states, including all 55 counties in [[West Virginia]], 14 counties in [[New York (state)|New York]], 52 in [[Pennsylvania]], 32 in [[Ohio]], 3 in [[Maryland]], 54 in [[Kentucky]], 25 counties and 8 [[Administrative divisions of Virginia#Independent cities|cities]] in [[Virginia]],<ref>In Virginia, all municipalities incorporated as "cities" are legally separate from counties.</ref> 29 in [[North Carolina]], 52 in [[Tennessee]], 6 in [[South Carolina]], 37 in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], 37 in [[Alabama]], and 24 in [[Mississippi]].<ref name=arc1 /> When the Commission was established, counties were added based on economic need, however, rather than any cultural parameters.<ref name=abramson1 />

 

The first major attempt to map Appalachia as a distinctive cultural region came in the 1890s with the efforts of [[Berea College]] president [[William Goodell Frost]], whose "Appalachian America" included 194 counties in 8 states.<ref name=williams>John Alexander Williams, ''Appalachia: A History'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002)</ref>{{rp|11–14}} In 1921, John C. Campbell published ''The Southern Highlander and His Homeland'' in which he modified Frost's map to include 254 counties in 9 states. A landmark survey of the region in the following decade by the [[United States Department of Agriculture]] defined the region as consisting of 206 counties in 6 states. In 1984, Karl Raitz and Richard Ulack expanded the ARC's definition to include 445 counties in 13 states, although they removed all counties in Mississippi and added two in [[New Jersey]]. Historian John Alexander Williams, in his 2002 book ''Appalachia: A History'', distinguished between a "core" Appalachian region consisting of 164 counties in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia, and a greater region defined by the ARC.<ref name=abramson1 />