Stephen Wallace Taylor (born 1965) is an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

and former chair of the Department of

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and Political Science at

Middle Georgia State University Middle Georgia State University is a public university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. It is part of the University System of Georgia and offers programs to students on five campuses in Middle Georgia and online. Middle Georgia State Uni ...

, in Macon,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. Taylor is the author of ''The New South's New Frontier: A Social History of Economic Development in Southwestern North Carolina (New Perspectives on the History of the South)'', released in 2001, which one reviewer called "a concise and provocative economic history." Taylor has presented his research to national and international scholarly audiences, including the Organization of American Historians, the American Studies Association, the American Society for Environmental History, the Appalachian Studies Association, and the Southern Historical Association. His current research focuses on federal environmental policy and the uses of technology in the Great Smoky Mountains. His other published research includes ''From Tomato Fields to Tourists: the Development of Hilton Head Island'', (with Margaret A. Shannon) in Richard Starnes, ed., Southern Journeys: Tourism, History and Culture in the Modern South (University of Alabama Press, 2003), ''Citizens against Wilderness: Environmentalism and the Politics of Marginalization in the Great Smoky Mountains” in Heather Goodall, Paul Rosier, and Sylvia Washington, eds., Echoes from the Poisoned Well'' (Lexington Books/Rowman and Littlefield, 2006), and ''Technocracy on the March: The Tennessee Valley Authority and the Promotion of Technology, 1943-1982'', in Susanna Delfino and Michele Gillespie, eds., Technology, Innovation, and Southern Industrialization: From the Antebellum Age to the Computer Age (University of Missouri Press, 2008). Taylor received his

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

. in History at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

, in

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. His doctoral dissertation, ''Building the Back of Beyond: Government Authority, Community Life and Economic Development in the Upper Little Tennessee Valley, 1880-1992'' was the winner of the King Award for Best Dissertation in Southern History. He has specific interests in history of

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

and

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...

, especially the

socioeconomic Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their local ...

history of the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. Taylor’s general research areas include American Studies; Business and Commerce History; Environmental / Rural /

Agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

History / Geography; Labor History / Studies; State and Local History / Museums;Teaching;

U.S. History The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of Settlement of the Americas, the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Native American cultures in the United States, Numerous indigenous cultures formed ...

and Culture; and

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

Studies. Taylor lent his knowledge to and was featured in a television documentary called ''Hillbilly: The Real Story'' that aired on

The History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

and was hosted by

Billy Ray Cyrus Billy Ray Cyrus (born August 25, 1961) is an American country singer and actor. He has released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, and is known for his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart", which topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart and ...

.http://shop.history.com/detail.php?p=70345&v=history_subject_us-history&SESSID=7d28856bc8aa1bd4ab2bb3bc469ac4d4

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Stephen Wallace Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers 1965 births American male non-fiction writers