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Arkansas/Arkansaw
How Bear Hunters, Hillbillies, and Good Ol’ Boys
Defined a State
Brooks Blevins
Who are you calling a hillbilly?
“This is an exhaustive investigation into two centuries’
worth of images of Arkansas, from stereotypes of backwardness
to romantic ideas of wildness. For a newcomer like myself,
this book is a revelation that equips me for living in this
complex region, while for natives it should be a welcome review
of their state’s representations in the eyes of others.
At a time when Americans are re-evaluating once more their
priorities and rethinking ideas of progress, urban sprawl,
and the enviornment, this book offers a thoughtful and timely
analysis, useful well beyond the scope of its subject. Arkansas
will be reimagined many times yet, and this book will be a
lasting reference.”
—Andrei Codrescu, NPR commentator,
LSU Emeritus Professor of English, and
author of Jealous Witness: New Poems
What do
Scott Joplin, John Grisham, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Maya Angelou,
Brooks Robinson, Helen Gurley Brown, Johnny Cash, Alan Ladd,
and Sonny Boy Williamson have in common? They’re all
Arkansans. What do hillbillies, rednecks, slow trains, bare
feet, moonshine, and double-wides have in common? For many
in America these represent Arkansas more than any Arkansas
success stories do. In 1931 H. L. Mencken described AR (not
AK, folks) as the “apex of moronia.” While, in
1942 a Time magazine article said Arkansas had “developed
a mass inferiority complex unique in American history.”
Arkansas/Arkansaw is the first book to explain how
Arkansas’s image began and how the popular culture stereotypes
have been perpetuated and altered through succeeding generations.
Brooks Blevins argues that the image has not always been a
bad one. He discusses travel accounts, literature, radio programs,
movies, and television shows that give a very positive image
of the Natural State. From territorial accounts of the Creole
inhabitants of the Mississippi River Valley to national derision
of the state’s triple-wide governor’s mansion
to Li’l Abner, the Beverly Hillbillies, and Slingblade,
Blevins leads readers on an entertaining and insightful tour
through more than two centuries of the idea of Arkansas. One
discovers along the way how one state becomes simultaneously
a punch line and a source of admiration for progressives and
social critics alike.
Brooks Blevins is the Noel Boyd Associate
Professor of Ozarks Studies at Missouri State University.
He is the author of Cattle in the Cotton Fields,
Hill Folks, and Lyon
College, 1872–2002 and editor of Life
in the Leatherwoods.
September
8 1/2 x 5 1/2, 250 pages, 40 illustrations, index
$19.95 paper
ISBN 978-1-55728-952-0
$29.95 cloth - OUT OF STOCK
ISBN 978-1-55728-905-6 | 1-55728-905-0
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