In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Chapter Nine The Awakening in East Tennessee’s Leading City and an Ongoing Homecoming, 1970–Present I came home to the family farm just outside the small town of Kingston in 1987. For twenty years now, the half-hour drive to and from Webb School on Knoxville’s western outskirts has allowed me to reflect on the issues and concerns that ultimately found their way into this book. Only gradually have I come to realize how much residents of East Tennessee’s leading city contributed to the broader history of East Tennessee and to my own homecoming. In 1987, neither my Knoxville friends (new or old) nor I glimpsed, even dimly, the idea that this book’s title conveys . As students enrolled in my regional history elective remind me each fall, Knoxvillians are still puzzled with my assertion that East Tennesseans are “Appalachians all.” Yet circumstances underway even before I headed west for New Mexico in 1976 changed East Tennessee’s preeminent city and challenged Knoxvillians to reconsider and temper their characteristic ambivalence for things Appalachian. These admittedly uneven developments are still unfolding. Where they will lead is unclear, but this much is certain: the events, issues, and themes explored in this final chapter are very important for Knoxville, its East Tennessee neighbors, and this elusive place we call Appalachia. The World Comes to Knoxville Freewheeling discussions in the office of Knoxville Mayor Kyle Testerman in the mid-1970s gave rise to one of the most important and symbolic events in East Tennessee’s history. Determined to stimulate a “quantum leap” that would end decades of lethargy and revitalize the city’s downtown, the energetic mayor unveiled plans for a “Knoxville International Energy Exposition.” Soon renamed “Expo ’82,” the event ultimately became known as “Knoxville’s World’s Fair.” From May to October 1982, eleven million fairgoers came to Knoxville, surpassing the goals of Mayor Testerman and his band of boosters. The popular response to the fair surprised many observers and dismayed a few others, and a recent The Awakening in East Tennessee’s Leading City 224 twenty-fifth anniversary celebration reveals that “the fair” still engenders controversy among city residents. This is not the place to assess the fair’s broader effect; suffice it to say that Knoxville’s 1982 World’s Fair brought both benefits and costs to the host city and greater East Tennessee that did not end when the fair left town. How did the fair affect and reflect Knoxville’s relationship with its neighbors and the greater Appalachian region? Downtown development was clearly the fair promoters’ top priority, but when quizzed about what they most enjoyed, casual fairgoers offered an array of responses. The fair’s official theme, “Energy Turns the World,” and unprecedented, impressive exhibits and pavilions from nineteen nations gave the fair a contemporary, cosmopolitan atmosphere. Yet accounts (official and otherwise) suggest many visitors passed quickly (if at all) through the high-tech exhibits, flocking instead to displays of traditional arts in the various national exhibits. Even greater numbers reportedly visited the fair’s popular Folklife Festival. Funded by East Tennessee–based Stokely–Van Camp Corporation, the festival highlighted music, dance, artifacts (including a “working moonshine still”), and foodways from a region “defined as primarily SouthCentral Appalachia.” To broaden appeal, the festival also invited performers and offered exhibits from areas of the deeper South associated with the blues tradition and all of Tennessee. Like the fair itself, the folklife festival evoked debate. When initially approached about the idea, leading Knoxvillians responded ambivalently. Fears that they might appear “a step or two behind modern society to visitors from around the world” sparred with characteristic East Tennessee pride and echoed selfdoubts that have characterized Knoxvillians since the days of William Blount. Still, the festival proved extremely popular among the scores of outsiders, East Tennesseans, and Knoxvillians who passed through the fair’s turnstiles. Among other things, this popularity revealed that a fascination with Appalachia, real and imagined, retained power near the end of the twentieth century. As the fair wound down, backers erected a downtown billboard proclaiming, “The Scruffy Little City Did It!” A response to a pre-fair prediction in the Wall Street Journal, the retort revealed a defensiveness that has long defined East Tennessee’s leading city. That attitude also helps explain Knoxvillians’ clearly ambivalent responses to the Folklife Festival and to Appalachia in general.1 1. Richard Van Kleeck, “Reflections on the 1982 World’s Fair,” Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 49, no...

Share