Shaun Slifer

is an artist and author living in Pittsburgh, PA. He works as the Creative Director with the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum and is a founding member/owner of the Justseeds Artists Cooperative.

1,500,000 Gas Masks: Appalachia as a Resource Colony in Rod Harless & Dan Cutler's The Hillbillys: A Book for Children

1,500,000 Gas Masks: Appalachia as a Resource Colony in Rod Harless & Dan Cutler’s The Hillbillys: A Book for Children

The Hilllbillys is hardly a children’s book. The illustrations are raw, and it is a bleak story that carries pessimistic despondency rare to see from movement documents in the era. Harless and Cutler offer a deeply frustrated parable of exploitation and environmental destruction in the Appalachian region.