“Beyond the Mountains: The Long History of Appalachian Commodities” A Keynote Address by Dr. Drew Swanson

The public is invited to attend the keynote address of the Southern Forum for Agricultural, Rural, and Environmental History on Friday April 27, from 5-6:15 p.m. at the East Tennessee History Center. This special lecture portion of the conference will be open to the general public.

Old stereotypes of Appalachia portray the mountains as a region isolated by its environment. Professor Swanson’s talk and forthcoming book upend those portrayals, using the stories of regional commodities like gold, salt, and tobacco to show how natural resources so often connected the mountains to the rest of the nation and globe.

Drew Swanson is an associate professor of history at Walter State University in Dayton, Ohio. He is the author of A Golden Weed: Tobacco and Environment in the Piedmont South and Remaking Wormsloe Plantation: The Environmental History of a Lowcountry Landscape. He is currently completing a book on the environmental history of Appalachia.