4 ms·
>"headbutting of cultures that so many Americans on the coastal big cities just don't get or approve of, and love to condescendingly talk about that kind of per
by dualboot 6y ago
>"headbutting of cultures that so many Americans on the coastal big cities just don't get or approve of, and love to condescendingly talk about that kind of personality as lesser or barbarous in some way."
This cultural divide has deep roots in the power struggle that was created when the people who settled the Appalachian's figured out that converting fields of corn into distilled bottles of whisky was far more profitable since it could travel infinitely farther without spoilage along the trade routes.
They were "dirt poor" prior to this because they could generate fresh produce that had a limited scope and value on the market.
That's when the war on stills began and there was a very thorough campaign of misinformation about how "dumb hillbillies" were going to blow themselves up/make everyone blind trying to operate a simple still.
It was really about the potential shift in economic power if that region was able to leverage vast lands for growing and creating highly profitable alcohol that could be sold across the country.
That campaign/lobby was so effective that it still resonates to this day.
- arminiusreturns 6y agoThat's an interesting take I hadn't really thought of before. Do you have any book or reading recommendations on the topic?
- scruple 6y agoNot the GP and I don't have any book recommendations but, at least as a starting point, it begins with the history of the Whiskey Rebellion.
- panzagl 6y ago"Albion's Seed" by David Hackett Fischer was the foundation of the Appalachian studies course I took a couple decades ago. Basically you had the old Tidewater aristocracy, the Puritans who supplanted them as the intellectual elite from the Revolution to the Civil War, and the Scots Irish who were kicked from the border marches to Ireland to America to Appalachia. Explains a lot of the class and religious differences that are still apparent in the red/blue divide.
- libraryatnight 6y agoIf you're interested about the booze side of things, I recommend "The Alcoholic Republic" https://www.amazon.com/Alcoholic-Republic-American-Tradition/dp/0195029909 https://www.amazon.com/Alcoholic-Republic-American-Tradition...