"In this pioneering work of cultural history, historian Anthony Harkins argues that the hillbilly - in his various guises of "briar hopper," "brush ape," "ridge runner," and "while trash"--Has been viewed by mainstream Americans simultaneously as a violent degenerate who threatens the modern order and as a keeper of traditional values of family, home, and physical production, and thus symbolic of a nostalgic past free of the problems of contemporary life. "Hillbilly" signifies both rugged individualism and stubborn backwardness, strong family and kin networks but also inbreeding and bloody feuds."--Jacket.