After proving that human history at least for the last 700 years or so shows clear evidence that some people always take control and the rest of the people get trodden down, the author concludes that more government intervention is the way to lift these down-trodden back up. It is a surprising conclusion, given that the problems of Appalachia, in particular, came about as a result government programs that, at least nominally, were supposed to be good for these very same people. ( )

"Ramp Hollow" is much more than a detailed history of Appalachia. It provides valuable perspectives on regions around the world based upon sustenance economies. He paints a gripping picture of life for the early settlers of Appalachia explaining that their success came from access to the "commons" represented by the forests of the area. The forests allowed them to hunt and gather what they needed beyond the patch of ground that they had staked out. When logging and coal mining companies arrived, they created enclosures that cut off these settlers from those commons in a way that impoverished those settlers.

The book provides a deep understanding of topics like the Whiskey Rebellion and the culture of settlers which are generally brushed over rapidly in American history classes. Stoll's book provides an excellent expansion of topics covered in Polanyi's "Great Transformation" and Graeber's "Debt: The First 5000 Years".

Finally, although the book is somewhat scholarly in tone, I found it a real page-turner. ( )