"Professor Dunn provides us with a model historical investigation of a southern mountain community. His findings on commercial farming, family, religion, and politics will challenge many standard interpretations of the Appalachian past."
-Gordon B. McKinney, Western Carolina University

 "This is a fine book. . . . It is mostly about community and interrelationships, and thus it refutes much of the literature that presents Southern Mountaineers as individualistic, irreligious, violent, and unlawful."
-Loyal Jones, Appalachian Heritage

"Dunn . . . has written one of the best books ever produced about the Southern mountains."
-Virginia Quarterly Review

"This study offers the first detailed analysis of a remote southern Appalachian community in the nineteenth century. It should lay to rest older images of the region as isolated and static, but it raises new questions about the nature of that premodern community."
-Ronald D Eller, American Historical Review

"Not only is his book a worthy addition to the growing body of work recognizing the complexities of southern mountain society; it is also a lively testament to the value of local history and the variety of levels at which it can provide significant enlightenment."
-John C. Inscoe, LOCUS