Knox County Public Library invites the public to a discussion of Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia by Steven Stoll at noon on Wednesday, September 26 in the East Tennessee History Center auditorium. The discussion will be led by Amy Steadman, Collections Development Manager at ETSU's Center of Appalachian Studies and Services.

Ramp Hollow offers the reader a sensitive portrayal of Appalachians and their self-sufficiency with small-scale farming, foraging and hunting, along with distilling and trading. Stoll recasts the story of Appalachia as a complex struggle between mountaineers and profit-seeking industrialization that came from outside the region. His original investigation—ranging widely from history to literature, art, and economics—questions our assumptions about progress and development, and exposes the devastating legacy of dispossession and its repercussions today.