Richard Straw, in response to Tony Thomas's message posted earlier today:

I'd like to say that I find this post to be ironic or funny, not sure
which, on a number of levels. This post exemplifies the trend that has
been going on within this list over the last several months to categorize,
to establish THE origins, to argue for the BEST example, or find the
TRUTH.

As someone who I guess could be called a Southern regional specialist,
since I've taught southern history and Appalachian history and culture for
30 years, I do not believe that I've ever encountered the term Appalachian
imperialism to describe something that Appalachian people did to other
people. I think Appalachian scholars and people would agree that
Appalachia has more likely been the recipient of imperialistic tendencies
rather than the perpetrators of them. I think to suggest otherwise is just
pretty silly.

Also, I've never encountered the term Appalachianist either. It also
strikes me as rather odd and misplaced. As I've aged, I've admittedly
mellowed and what might have been worth arguing about 20 or 30 years ago
just doesn't really seem all that important anymore, but I do have to
object strongly to the broad, meaningless, and totally unsupported
generalizations in Mr. Thomas' post, starting with, "In banjo playing, the
Piedmont areas of North Carolina and Virginia are far more significant for
the history of banjo playing both Black and White than anything that ever
happened in Appalachia."

I just find it remarkable that anyone could make such an unsupported
global generalization. On the "dissolving" question that he raises at the
end of his post, I would like to point out that Bill Malone has stated on
more than one occasion his objection to the term Appalachian music,
preferring, I think, the dissolution tendencies that Mr. Thomas seems to
deplore.

Richard Straw
Radford University

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