Ramp Hollow (Bookclub #4)

Fruitless

This is the fourth installment of the Fruitless Bookclub, a show-within-a-show, featuring Chris Barker and Jake the Lawyer, where we read all those nonfiction books we've been meaning to read. Today's episode is about Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia by Steven Stoll. We talk peasants. We talk agrarians. We talk about peasants and agrarians getting destroyed by industry. We take a closer look at rural class dynamics and the history of the Appalachians. This is probably the longest episode of Fruitless yet. Sorry.

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Other references

• Eric Waggoner, "I'm From West Virginia and I've Got Something to Say About the Chemical Spill," https://www.huffpost.com/entry/west-virginia-chemical-spill_b_4598140.
• Here's a massive google doc with my notes for the episode if you want more, https://docs.google.com/document/d/17JJPM3aChJqhLIQ7rJ0HTtIRjFIFJ5Ric9OcZHEBxv0.
• Squatters' rights battle in Florida, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/03/28/squatter-rights-laws-florida-bill/73128455007.
• Black Reconstruction in America, by W. E. B. Du Bois
• The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein
• Gasland (2010), directed by Josh Fox

Music & Audio credits

• Yesterday – bloom.
• Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford

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