Chapter 34 Quiz: Appalachia and American Politics
Multiple Choice
1. The term "Yellow Dog Democrat" refers to:
a) A voter who only supports candidates endorsed by animal rights organizations b) A voter so loyal to the Democratic Party that they would vote for a yellow dog before voting Republican c) A voter who switches parties frequently d) A politician who betrays their party's platform
2. Appalachian Democratic loyalty in the mid-twentieth century was primarily rooted in:
a) The region's support for the Confederacy during the Civil War b) The New Deal, which brought relief programs, collective bargaining protections, and federal investment to the coalfields c) The Democratic Party's opposition to gun control d) Appalachian support for the civil rights movement
3. The "Southern Strategy" refers to:
a) The Democratic Party's plan to industrialize the South b) The Republican Party's deliberate effort to attract white Southern voters alienated by Democratic support for civil rights c) A military strategy used during the Civil War d) A plan to relocate federal agencies to Southern states
4. Which of the following best describes the "God, Guns, and Gays" framing in Appalachian politics?
a) A Democratic strategy to attract rural voters b) A Republican cultural formula combining opposition to gun control, alignment with evangelical social positions, and opposition to same-sex marriage c) A neutral description of Appalachian cultural values d) An academic framework developed by political scientists
5. In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump's margin of victory in many coalfield counties was:
a) Approximately 10 percentage points b) Approximately 30 percentage points c) Approximately 50-60 percentage points d) Less than 5 percentage points
6. J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy argued that Appalachian poverty was primarily caused by:
a) Structural economic forces including extraction and deindustrialization b) Cultural attitudes including a lack of personal responsibility and dysfunctional family structures c) Climate change and environmental degradation d) Insufficient natural resources
7. Elizabeth Catte's What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia criticized Hillbilly Elegy primarily for:
a) Being too sympathetic to Appalachian communities b) Recycling the "culture of poverty" thesis and obscuring the structural causes of Appalachian poverty c) Advocating for too much government intervention d) Failing to include enough personal anecdotes
8. In the 2016 West Virginia Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton primarily because:
a) Sanders had extensive personal connections in West Virginia b) Clinton's "coal companies out of business" comment, combined with Sanders' outsider economic populism, resonated with voters alienated from the Democratic establishment c) Sanders promised to expand coal production d) West Virginia voters uniformly supported democratic socialism
9. The chapter argues that the Appalachian political realignment was:
a) Caused by a single factor (the "War on Coal") b) Unique to Appalachia and unconnected to national political trends c) Driven by multiple converging forces including union decline, cultural conservatism, racial politics, and the "War on Coal" narrative d) A temporary shift that has already reversed
10. The chapter cautions against treating Appalachia as a political monolith because:
a) The region encompasses 423 counties across 13 states with significant political diversity including urban, university, and racially diverse communities b) Every county in Appalachia votes the same way c) Political science does not study regional voting patterns d) Appalachian voters do not participate in elections at significant rates
Short Answer
11. Explain the connection between union decline and the political realignment of the Appalachian coalfields. How did the loss of union institutional structures contribute to the shift from Democratic to Republican voting?
12. The chapter states that Trump's failure to restore coal "did not, for the most part, cost him support in West Virginia." How does the chapter explain this apparent paradox?
13. What is the core disagreement between J.D. Vance's cultural explanation of Appalachian poverty and Elizabeth Catte's structural explanation? Summarize each position in one or two sentences.
14. The chapter distinguishes between the "mountain Republican tradition" (rooted in Civil War Unionism) and the modern Republican realignment. Why is this distinction important for understanding the full political history of Appalachia?
Essay
15. Chapter 34 states: "The historian's task is to explain, with as much accuracy and empathy as the evidence allows, why human beings made the choices they made." Drawing on the evidence in Chapter 34 and the case studies, write a 500-750 word essay explaining the political realignment of Appalachia. Your essay should: (a) identify at least three major causes of the realignment, (b) explain how these causes interacted and reinforced each other, (c) address the role of both structural forces and individual agency in the transformation, and (d) avoid both dismissing Appalachian voters' choices as irrational and treating the political outcome as inevitable. The challenge is to explain without endorsing or condemning.