New South's New Frontier

the long version

"The New South's New Frontier explores the origins of exploitative development in the Great Smoky Mountains and finds some surprising similarities to developmental patterns in the rest of the South. Focusing on the economic transformation of the southern Appalachians, Stephen Taylor examines the dynamics of rural versus small-town forces in the western North Carolina mountains, the region sometimes known as the "back of beyond," a name that pays homage to the mythic past of Appalachian isolation."--BOOK JACKET.