broader population. Most of the city’s
inhabitants had moved there for work in
the new industrial plants, and most of
these new workers were from
Appalachia. The family-based hiring
practices of the major industrial firms^7
had their desired effect, and the results
were predictable. All over the industrial
Midwest, new communities of
Appalachian transplants and their
families sprang up, virtually out of
nowhere. As one study noted,
“Migration did not so much destroy
neighborhoods and families as transport
them.”^8 In 1950s Middletown, my
grandparents found themselves in a
situation both new and familiar. New