I just received an e-mail about this book. Has anyone read it yet?

Lexington, KY-The Civil War left a lasting mark on the lands and people of Appalachia. Families, communities, and the region itself were altered by fighting which left the region in turmoil. The turbulence and uncertainty did not end with the war, however. Some areas of the region were ravaged by both armies and left with a devastated infrastructure and dwindling resources. The war caused not only massive material destruction to the landscape, but chaos within the social fabric of the region. Thick with political unrest, neighborhoods and communities were left divided. The animosities that had developed during the war did not simply disappear when peace arrived.

The decades following the Civil War are among the most important, yet most neglected, in the region's history. Andrew L. Slap's "Reconstructing Appalachia: The Civil War's Aftermath" explores this previously uncharted history, providing an intimate portrait of Appalachia, not as a massive, homogenous region, but rather as a diverse collection of communities where the values of place and family are of crucial importance. "Reconstructing Appalachia" highlights a diverse array of topics including racial reconciliation, tension between former Unionists and Confederates, the evolution of post-Civil War memory, and alterations in the perceptions of race, gender, and economic status.

The repercussions of the war incited a broad range of special challenges for people living in the mountains of Appalachia as they attempted the difficult task of piecing their world back together. Women, who had become farmers and entrepreneurs during the war, had to resume their legal subservience while African Americans explored their new freedoms. The region also faced economic collapse in the former slave-holding states as well as rapid industrialization and urbanization in certain areas which threatened the traditional ways of living and lead to the depletion of natural resources and to environmental abuse.

"Reconstructing Appalachia" features the work of top scholars, including John Inscoe, Gordon B. McKinney and Ken Fones-Wolf, but also opens the door for a new generation of Appalachian historians, such as Mary Ella Engel, Anne Marshall, and Kyle Osborn. These experts explore the depth and breadth of the problems in this neglected yet crucial period in the region's history.

Featuring a broad geographic focus, Reconstructing Appalachia covers postwar events in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The contributors offer a diverse set of assessments of the area and cover a wide array of topics. They add new and important information and analysis to our understanding of Appalachia and its past that will hopefully launch further inquiry into this neglected period in our history.

Andrew L. Slap, associate professor of history at East Tennessee State University, is the author of The Doom of Reconstruction: The Liberal Republicans in the Civil War Era.