J. Blake Perkins, the author of the new book, Hillbilly Hellraisers: Federal Power and Populist Defiance in the Ozarks, will give a talk about his book beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, October 23, 2017, in Room 107 on the First (Main) Level of Duane G. Meyer Library on the campus of MSU. The talk is free and open to all members of the campus community and the general public. After his talk, copies of his book will be available to purchase and have signed by the author, and refreshments will be served.

Perkins uses in-depth microhistories about moonshining, draft evasion during WW I, resistance to tick eradication programs for cattle, resistance to large federally-funded dams in the White River basin, and resistance to the War on Poverty to explore the roots of rural defiance in the Arkansas Ozarks, and to discover how the resistance was very nuanced and changed over time. More often than not, the real struggle was not between Ozarkers and outside federal agents, but between local elites, who usually lived in town, and poor yeomanry, who eked out a living in the hollers and river bottoms. It really was an intra-regional conflict about economic opportunities to be encouraged and supported by federal policies and financial support in the region, especially agriculture.

Perkins, a native of the Arkansas Ozarks, is an assistant professor of history at Williams Baptist University in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.