@article{466063,
      author = {Thompson, Charles Dillard,},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/466063},
      title = {Spirits of just men mountaineers, liquor bosses, and  lawmen in the moonshine capital of the world / [electronic  resource] :},
      publisher = {University of Illinois Press,},
      abstract = {"Following the end of Prohibition in 1933, demand for  moonshine remained high due to taxes imposed on large  liquor producers. Seeking to answer this demand were the  distillers of Appalachia who, having established illegal  networks of moonshine distribution under Prohibition,  continued their activities and effectively skirted the  federal liquor tax scheme. Spirits of Just Men chronicles  the Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935, held in  Franklin County, Virginia, a place that many still refer to  as the "Moonshine Capital of the World." While the trial  itself made national news, Thompson uses the event as a  stepping-off point to explore Blue Ridge Mountain culture,  economy, and political engagement in the 1930 illustrating  how participation in the moonshine trade was a rational and  savvy choice for farmers and community members struggling  to maintain their way of life amidst the pressures of the  Great Depression and pull of the timber and coal-mining  industries in Virginia. Through Thompson's prose, local  characters come alive as he pays particular attention to  the stories of a key witness for the defense, Miss Ora  Harrison, an Episcopalian missionary to the region, and  Elder Goode Hash, itinerant Primitive Baptist preacher and  juror in a related murder trial. Thompson explores how  local religious belief both clashed with and condoned the  moonshine trade and how stills and the trade enabled a  distinctive cultural formation in the region that goes far  beyond the hillbilly stereotype alive today. Not only is  his work based on extensive oral histories and local  archival material, but Thompson himself is from the area  and his grandparents were involved in not only the  moonshine trade but the trial as well"--},
      recid = {466063},
      pages = {xxix, 269 p. :},
      address = {Urbana :},
      year = {2011},
}