Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People is a four-part American documentary television series that premiered April 9, 2009, on PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

. The series explores the natural

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 and human history of the Appalachian Mountains

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

 region.

Background

Most of the people featured in the series come from, or live in, the Appalachian region, including the narrator Sissy Spacek

Sissy Spacek

Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...

. Some of the other people featured include Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for his teaching, research, and...

, Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the former Republic of Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before...

, E. O. Wilson

E. O. Wilson

Edward Osborne Wilson is an American biologist, researcher , theorist , naturalist and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants....

, Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni

Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Her primary focus is on the individual and the power one has to make a difference in oneself and in the lives of others. Giovanni’s poetry expresses strong racial pride, respect for family, and her...

, Robert Coles

Robert Coles

Martin Robert Coles is an American author, child psychiatrist, and professor at Harvard University.-Life and career:...

, Wilma Dykeman

Wilma Dykeman

Wilma Dykeman Stokely was an American writer of fiction and nonfiction whose works chronicled the people and land of Appalachia.-Biography:...

, Charles Hudson

Charles M. Hudson (author)

Charles M. Hudson is the Franklin Professor of Anthropology and History Emeritus at the University of Georgia, and is one of the foremost authorities on the history and culture of the Indians of the U.S. Southeast.-Degrees:Charles Melvin Hudson Jr....

, Denise Giardina

Denise Giardina

Denise Giardina is a novelist. Her book Storming Heaven was a Discovery Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and received the 1987 W. D. Weatherford Award for the best published work about the Appalachian South. The Unquiet Earth received an American Book Award and the Lillian Smith Book Award...

, Mary Lee Settle

Mary Lee Settle

Mary Lee Settle was an American writer and winner of the National Book Award for her 1978 novel Blood Tie...

, John Ehle

John Ehle

John Marsden Ehle, Jr. is an American writer known best for his fiction set in the Appalachian Mountains of the American South.-Biography and literary career:...

, Sharyn McCrumb

Sharyn McCrumb

Sharyn McCrumb is an American writer whose books celebrate the history and folklore of Appalachia. McCrumb is the winner of numerous literary awards, and the author of the Elizabeth McPherson series, the Ballad series, and the St...

, and Gurney Norman

Gurney Norman

Gurney Norman is an American novelist, documentarian, and professor.-Biography:Gurney Norman was born in Grundy, Virginia in 1937...

.

Reception

Diana Nelson Jones of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...

called the series "engrossing and beautifully filmed and illustrated". Jones suggested that with enough viewers Appalachia "could be the beginning of a cure for society's malignant attitude about the region". Steven Rosen of the Cincinnati CityBeat

Cincinnati CityBeat

Cincinnati CityBeat is an independent local arts and issues publication covering the Cincinnati, Ohio area. It has the second largest readership in the Cincinnati area behind the daily Cincinnati Enquirer.-History:...

graded the series a C saying that it "takes way too long getting to the state of this region in the 20th and 21st centuries and then skims over critical material". "Instead, it allows a lot of romantic musings from several writers and scientists about the land".

Episodes

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