Brooks Blevins is the Noel Boyd Professor of Ozarks Studies at Missouri State University. He is the author or editor of eleven books, including A History of the Ozarks, Volume 1: The Old Ozarks; A History of the Ozarks, Volume 2: The Conflicted Ozarks; Ghost of the Ozarks: Murder and Memory in the Upland South; and Arkansas/Arkansaw: How Bear Hunters, Hillbillies, and Good Ol' Boys Defined a State.