The author is quite knowledgeable, maybe too much so. Essentially, he says the tragedy of Appalachia is that of property theft. However, he belabors the point (e.g. review of early history of political-economists, the entire history of the British enclosures period??) that I still haven't reached the book's halfway point. His connections and 'proofs' could have been more succinct. And so I probably will turn this book back before finishing; it's turning my brain to coal-colored Jello.