Appalachia

Appalachia ( or ) is a geo-cultural region located in the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. West Virginia, located near the center, is the only state entirely within the boundaries of Appalachia. While its geographic boundaries stretch as far north as New Brunswick and Newfoundland, Canada, the Appalachian Regional Commission's (ARC) borders begin in the Southern tier of New York and continue south through the Blue Ridge Mountains and Great Smoky Mountains into northern Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. The cultural area that has been traditionally perceived as Appalachia, also known as "Old Appalachia", is generally defined as a subregion inside of the ARC's boundaries. In 2021, the region was home to an estimated 26.3 million people.

Since its recognition as a cultural region in the late 19th century, Appalachia has been a source of enduring myths and distortions regarding the isolation, temperament, and behavior of its inhabitants. Early 20th-century writers often engaged in yellow journalism focused on sensationalistic aspects of the region's culture, such as moonshining and clan feuding, portraying the region's inhabitants as uneducated and unrefined; although these stereotypes still exist to a lesser extent today, sociological studies have since begun to dispel them.

Appalachia is endowed with abundant natural resources, but its residents have struggled economically due to systemic exploitation from outside industrialists and have long been associated with poverty. In the early 20th century, large-scale logging and coal mining firms brought jobs and modern amenities to Appalachia, but by the 1960s the region had failed to capitalize on any long-term benefits from these two industries. Beginning in the 1930s, the federal government sought to alleviate poverty in the Appalachian region with a series of New Deal initiatives, specifically the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA was responsible for the construction of hydroelectric dams that provide a vast amount of electricity and that support programs for better farming practices, regional planning, and economic development.

In 1965, the Appalachian Regional Commission was created to further alleviate poverty in the region, mainly by diversifying the region's economy and helping to provide better health care and educational opportunities to the region's inhabitants. By 1990, Appalachia had largely joined the economic mainstream but still lagged behind the rest of the nation in most economic indicators.