Eller, Uneven Group - Appalachia Since 1945

Abstract

The poet William Blake once wrote that "Great things are done when men and mountains meet. This is not done by jostling on the street." Ron Eller quietly has done "great things" for those who live in Appalachia, assuredly through intense "jostling" with academics, local leaders, poverty agencies, environmental groups, and with state and national policy makers and planners. As a former Director of the Appalachian Center at the University of Kentucky and also as a scholar, activist, advocate, and writer, he uniquely is qualified to tell us much of what has occurred in Appalachia since 1945. In all, he has devoted most of his adult life to studying and examining the nexus between Federal antipoverty programs and their impact upon the lives of those who live in Appalachia. The title of his latest work, Uneven Ground, reflects his belief that those designs and plans frequently have an ill-matched yield.