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| Dr. Blake Perkins |
It’s the New Year and
time for a new round of Pen to Podium lectures!
Dr. Blake Perkins
will discuss the history of defiance unique to people in the Ozark Mountain
region at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15, at the Department of Arkansas Heritage at
1100 North St. in Little Rock. The lecture is free and part of our 2019
Historical Writers’ Lecture Series.
The Friends of the
Arkansas State Archives plan to host a reception with refreshments 30 minutes
before the lecture.
Perkins’ book, Hillbilly Hellraisers: Federal Powerand Populist Defiance in the Ozarks, has drawn praise for its insightful look
into how rural people in the Ozarks reacted to and resisted federalism in the
19th and 20th centuries.
The
Ozarks includes parts of Arkansas and Missouri, where people have a reputation for
anti-government sentiment. Perkins’ book asks what role heritage plays in
perpetuating that attitude and focuses on real people’s experiences. The book traces social and political
changes from the Populist revolt of the 1880s and 1890s to the modern-day Tea
Party protests and the popularity of President Donald Trump.
“I
think one of the most unique aspects of Hillbilly Hellraisers is the way in which
it takes several local ‘case studies’ over time and extrapolates from them
broader historical patterns that can help explain some of the big questions of
American political and social history,” Perkins said.
Perkins’
research uses “microhistory,” or a method of looking at individual lives in a
historical moment. “If former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill was correct in
asserting that ‘all politics is local,’ zooming in to examine the local level
ought to tell us a good deal about how political history is actually made,”
Perkins explained.
There
has been growing interested in rural America, including the Ozarks, since the
2016 election of President Donald Trump, Perkins said. Perkins’ book encourages
people to think differently about the past and how politics have evolved.
“I think in many ways the Ozarks is an
excellent microcosm of rural America in general,” Perkins said.
Perkins
was born in the Ozarks and grew up on a fifth-generation farm near the
southeastern Ozarks in western Lawrence and Sharp counties. He became
interested in his family roots and history in elementary school. He has since
become an assistant professor and chair of the History Department at Williams
Baptist University in Walnut Ridge. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Lyon
College, a master’s degree from Missouri State University and a doctoral degree
from West Virginia University.
Perkins
said the history behind local politics and its evolution is fascinating. “As I watched anti-Obama, anti-Washington
politics surge in Arkansas between 2008 and 2016, I’ve been fascinated to
investigate and learn more about rural political and social history,” he said.
