How landscape shapes human cultures and in turn humans shape the land - the dynamic interaction of natural history and human history.

Appalachia, a land of magnificent beauty and startling contrasts-- stretches from New York to Mississippi and is home to the oldest mountains in North America and the most ancient forests in the world. It is said that more is known about Appalachia that is untrue than about any other region in the country. APPALACHIA: A History of Mountains and People sets the record straight. Ten years in the making, this groundbreaking series tells the compelling story of how landscape shapes humans cultures and, in turn, how humans shape the land-- the dynamic interaction of natural history and human history. Surrounded by half the population and two-thirds of the industry in the United States, Appalachia has experienced in full force the impact of humans on the most biodiverse mountain ecosystem on the continent. APPALACHIA is the story of the Iroquois and the Cherokee, of Revolutionary War heroes and Civil War atrocities, a brutal industrial logging and pioneering public conservation. Above all, APPALACHIA provides a window unto the defining question of our age: how to use the land to provide for the needs of today and at the same time, preserve it for the future. It is the American story writ intensely.—Ross Spears