The Dollmaker Author:Harriet Arnow The Dollmaker is the story of an Appalachian family’s migration from Kentucky to Detroit during World War II. Uprooted from the land, the Nevelses in Detroit become culturally displaced persons and economic pawns, able to survive, if at all, only by denying their sense of identity and adjusting to the system. Yet they are not alone: The millions... more » of other workers, coming from numerous ethnic backgrounds and crowded into Detroit’s industrial melting pot, suggest that the Nevelses’ experience is a familiar one, with variations.« less