After the War: Conflict and Domestic Change in the North Carolina Mountains...
is an exhibit that examines war in two important ways. First, it attempts to document how wars and their aftermath have shaped the lives of people and communities in western North Carolina. The exhibit tells the story of war and its aftermath from the point of view of those who experienced both the conflict and the changes it generated. Secondly, the exhibit depicts these changes in community and regional context so the nature and extent of the effects of war in western North Carolina can be better articulated, appreciated, and understood. The experiences and reflections of one generation can therefore be studied, learned from, and reflected on by those who have come “After the War.”This project, conceived and produced by the Mountain Heritage Center, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina, was made possible in part by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a state-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
"We have had the war. We are having an attempt at prohibition. Even in the farthest Appalachia people realize that the world has been upset, and that old ways, old notions, old convictions perhaps, must give place to new ones."
- Horace Kephart
Preface to the Revised Edition of Our Southern Highlanders, April 1922.
Preface to the Revised Edition of Our Southern Highlanders, April 1922.
It is said that nothing can be gained without losing something in return. The First and Second World Wars undoubtedly had their cost, but what was gained? As the brave soldiers of the United States were helping change the world in Europe and the Pacific, the world they came from was changing too. The wars redefined the national nature of Health Care, Civil Rights, Education, and the Economy, and when the veterans returned home, they found a region very different than the one they had left.Western North Carolina is as rich an example of these changes as any other slice of the nation. Here among us the victims of gas attacks and tuberculosis would breathe the mountain air as their ravaged lungs sought to improve. Here among us were women who bolstered by their experiences during the war would redefine their role in mountain families. Here among us mighty war plants sprung up to supply needs across the oceans; textiles, rubber, and wood, the very building blocks of many of America’s war machines were to be found in this region. Here among us, change was happening as Western Carolina University, fueled by the post war boom, emerged from it roots as a teaching college. The very men and women who marched to war in 1917 and 1941 could have no idea how much change lay ahead for them, both personally and on a societal level, both during and After the War.