This book describes the recovery of the Appalachian dulcimer’s lost history, tracing the dulcimer’s roots in a German instrument, the scheitholt; describing the early history of the scheitholt and the dulcimer in America, and outlining the development of distinctive dulcimer styles in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky. This fully revised and expanded edition provides additional information about the instrument’s history before the Civil War and discusses traditions and types that are still being discovered and documented.