Sociologists explain their condition through a culture-of-poverty theory or the theory of internal colonialism. Under the first theory, Appalachia families, for better or worse, simply cope with poverty. The second theory, on the other hand, ascribes poverty in Appalachia to structural causes. The theories offer insights but are both found to be quite deficient (Billings and Blee).

The first theory on culture-on-poverty became popular in the 60s and drew its premise from Appalachia's ethnic geography in the late 19th century. It was then perceived as a distinct region and race that entered the American consciousness only after the Civil War (Billings and Blee 2002). Imaginative fictionists only conjured images of the mountain and upland cultures, which were vastly out of step with the lowland's, culturally ad economically. At the turn of the century, Willim Goddell Frost, president of Berea College of Kentucky, discoursed on the people of the southern amounts...
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