West Virginia: A History

West Virginia: A History PDF

Author: John Alexander Williams

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1984-08-17

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0393243834

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John Alexander Williams's West Virginia: A History is widely considered one of the finest books ever written about the state. In his clear, eminently readable style, Williams organizes the tangled strands of West Virginia's past around a few dramatic events—the battle of Point Pleasant, John Brown's insurrection in Harper's Ferry, the Paint Creek labor movement, the Hawk's Nest and Buffalo Creek disasters, and more. Williams uses these pivotal events as introductions to the larger issues of statehood, Civil War, unionism, and industrialization. Along the way, Williams conveys a true feel for the lives of common West Virginians, the personalities of the state's memorable characters, and the powerful influence of the land itself on its own history.

West Virginia

West Virginia PDF

Author: Otis K. Rice

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2010-09-12

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0813137667

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" An essential resource for scholars, students, and all lovers of the Mountaineer State. From bloody skirmishes with Indians on the early frontier to the Logan County mine war, the story of West Virginia is punctuated with episodes as colorful and rugged as the mountains that dominate its landscape. In this first modern comprehensive history, Otis Rice and Stephen Brown balance these episodes of mountaineer individualism against the complexities of industrial development and the growth of social institutions, analyzing the events and personalities that have shaped the state. To create this history, the authors weave together many strands from the past and present. Included among these are geological and geographical features; the prehistoric inhabitants; exploration and settlement; relations with the Indians; the land systems and patterns of ownership; the Civil War and the formation of the state from the western counties of Virginia; the legacy of Reconstruction; politics and government; industrial development; labor problems and advances; and cultural aspects such as folkways, education, religion, and national and ethnic influences. For this second edition, the authors have added a new chapter, bringing the original material up to date and carrying the West Virginia story through the presidential election of 1992. Otis K. Rice is professor emeritus of history and Stephen W. Brown is professor of history at West Virginia Institute of Technology.

History and Government of West Virginia (Classic Reprint)

History and Government of West Virginia (Classic Reprint) PDF

Author: Virgil Anson Lewis

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-10

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 9781331113188

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Excerpt from History and Government of West Virginia The idea of preparing a history of West Virginia as text-book for use in the public and private schools of the State was not born of a sudden impulse. For more than a quarter of a century the author has been engaged in public school work, and nearly all that time in active classwork in the schoolroom. While so engaged he became strongly impressed with the fact that any course of instruction is seriously defective if it does not include a study that enables pupils to grow familiar with the history of their own State and people. History is also entitled to a place in the curriculum because it possesses high value as a character-builder, because its subject-matter is in itself deeply interesting, and because it readily leads into other subjects of the school course. This book has been prepared for the use of schools, and its aim is to place in the hands of the children of West Virginia a faithful, non-sectarian and non-partisan history of the State in which they will eventually have to discharge the duties of citizens or residents. As West Virginia is one of the many States composing the Great Republic, enough of national history has been interwoven to enable the pupil to perceive in what manner and to what extent the local laws, customs and institutions of the State have been affected by events occurring in the progress of the Nation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

West Virginia

West Virginia PDF

Author: Otis Rice

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2010-09-12

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 0813127335

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" An essential resource for scholars, students, and all lovers of the Mountaineer State. From bloody skirmishes with Indians on the early frontier to the Logan County mine war, the story of West Virginia is punctuated with episodes as colorful and rugged as the mountains that dominate its landscape. In this first modern comprehensive history, Otis Rice and Stephen Brown balance these episodes of mountaineer individualism against the complexities of industrial development and the growth of social institutions, analyzing the events and personalities that have shaped the state. To create this history, the authors weave together many strands from the past and present. Included among these are geological and geographical features; the prehistoric inhabitants; exploration and settlement; relations with the Indians; the land systems and patterns of ownership; the Civil War and the formation of the state from the western counties of Virginia; the legacy of Reconstruction; politics and government; industrial development; labor problems and advances; and cultural aspects such as folkways, education, religion, and national and ethnic influences. For this second edition, the authors have added a new chapter, bringing the original material up to date and carrying the West Virginia story through the presidential election of 1992. Otis K. Rice is professor emeritus of history and Stephen W. Brown is professor of history at West Virginia Institute of Technology.

West Virginia Politics and Government

West Virginia Politics and Government PDF

Author: Richard A. Brisbin

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1996-01-01

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 9780803212718

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With one of the weakest economies in the nation and a college attendance level lowest among the states, West Virginia has recently concentrated resources on combating its isolation from eastern markets and improving the quality of its public schools. The authors explore how West Virginians cope with these problems-compounded by the state's relatively high rates of occupational injury, teenage pregnancy, maternal health problems, heart disease, lung disease, and cancer-and how they choose to govern and be governed while seeking solutions. The authors argue that West Virginia's political system is affected by institutional rules, roles, and processes conditioned by the availability of economic resources. They examine the state's historical, political, judicial, and cultural practices, illuminating the policy consequences of limited institutional capacity on the economy, education, the environment, and healthcare. All four of the authors are at West Virginia University. Richard A. Brisbin Jr. is an associate professor of political science and the author of Justice Antonin Scalia and the Conservative Revival. Robert Jay Dilger is director of the Institute for Public Affairs and a professor of political science. His works include West Virginia in the 1990s: Opportunities for Economic Progress. Allan S. Hammock, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Political Science, is the coeditor of West Virginia Policy Issues. Christopher Z. Mooney is an assistant professor of political science and the coauthor of Bootstrapping: A Nonparametric Approach to Statistical Inference.

Myers' History of West Virginia

Myers' History of West Virginia PDF

Author: S B 1861 Myers

Publisher: Legare Street Press

Published: 2023-07-18

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781021317100

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Embark on a fascinating journey through the history of West Virginia with this comprehensive two-volume set. Packed with vivid descriptions, colorful anecdotes, and detailed timelines, it provides a complete overview of the state's social, political, and economic history from colonial times to the present day. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

West Virginia National Guard, 1898-1919

West Virginia National Guard, 1898-1919 PDF

Author: Brian Stuart Kesterson

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738568003

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The formation of what would eventually become the West Virginia National Guard has its roots intertwined in the Old Virginia Militia system of the early and mid-1700s. This militia system spanned the Indian hostilities of the French and Indian War, American Revolutionary War, 1780s and 1790s Indian Wars, and Civil War. Images of America: West Virginia National Guard covers the time span between 1898 and 1919. This period of guard history was chaotic, to say the least, and was typified by turbulent social, economic, and political unrest.

Cradle of America

Cradle of America PDF

Author: Peter Wallenstein

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2014-08-15

Total Pages: 552

ISBN-13: 0700619941

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As the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America, the birthplace of a presidential dynasty, and the gateway to western growth in the nation’s early years, Virginia can rightfully be called the “cradle of America.” Peter Wallenstein traces major themes across four centuries in a brisk narrative that recalls the people and events that have shaped the Old Dominion. The second edition is updated with new material throughout, including a new chapter on Virginia and world affairs from the Korean War through 9/11 and beyond, and, an expanded bibliography. Historical accounts of Virginia have often emphasized harmony and tradition, but Wallenstein focuses on the impact of conflict and change. From the beginning, Virginians have debated and challenged each other’s visions of Virginia, and Wallenstein shows how these differences have influenced its sometimes turbulent development. Casting an eye on blacks as well as whites, and on people from both east and west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he traces such key themes as political power, racial identity, and education. Bringing to bear his long experience teaching Virginia history, Wallenstein takes readers back, even before Jamestown, to the Elizabethan settlers at Roanoke Island and the inhabitants they encountered, as well as to Virginia’s leaders of the American Revolution. He chronicles the state’s dramatic journey through the Civil War era, a time that revealed how the nation’s evolution sometimes took shape in opposition to the vision of many leading Virginians. He also examines the impact of the civil rights movement and considers controversies that accompany Virginia into its fifth century. The text is copiously illustrated to depict not only such iconic figures as Pocahontas, George Washington, and Robert E. Lee, but also such other prominent native Virginians as Carter G. Woodson, Patsy Cline, and L. Douglas Wilder. Sidebars throughout the book offer further insight, while maps and appendixes of reference data make the volume a complete resource on Virginia’s history.

The Americanization of West Virginia

The Americanization of West Virginia PDF

Author: John C. Hennen

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-12-14

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 0813193621

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Local teachers and ministers extolling the virtues of hard work and loyalty to God and country. Veterans' groups and women's clubs promoting the military fighting radicalism, and equating business and patriotism. Industrial leaders gaining legal as well as moral influence over national domestic policy. Such scenes might seem to be lifted from a Sinclair Lewis novel or a Contract with America publicity video. But as John C. Hennen shows in this piercing analysis of early-twentieth-century American political culture, from 1916 to 1925 "Americanization" became the theme—indeed, the script—not only of West Virginia but of the entire nation. Hennen's interdisciplinary work examines a formative period in West Virginia's modern history that has been largely neglected beyond the traditional focus on the coal industry. Hennen looks at education, reform, and industrial relations in the state in the context of war mobilization, postwar instability, and national economic expansion. The First World War, he says, consolidated the dominant positions of professionals, business people, and political capitalists as arbiters of national values. These leaders emerged from the war determined to make free-market business principles synonymous with patriotic citizenship. Americanization, therefore, refers less to the assimilation of immigrants into the national mainstream than to the attempt to encode values that would guarantee a literate, loyal, and obedient producing class. To ensure that the state fulfilled its designated role as a resource zone for the perceived greater good of national strength, corporate leaders employed public relations tactics that the Wilson administration had refined to gain public support for the war. Alarmed by widespread labor activism and threatened by fears of communism, the American Constitutional Association in West Virginia, one of dozens of similar organizations nationwide, articulated principles that identified the well-being of business with the well-being of the country. With easy access to teacher training and classroom programs, antiunion forces had by 1923 rolled back the wartime gains of the United Mine Workers of America. Middle-class voluntary organizations like the American Legion and the West Virginia Federation of Women's Clubs helped implant mandated loyalty in schoolchildren. Far from being isolated during America's transformation into a world power, West Virginia was squarely in the mainstream. The state's people and natural resources were manipulated into serving crucial functions as producers and fuel for the postwar economy. Hennen's study, therefore, is a study less of the power or force of ideas than of the importance of access to the means to transmit ideas. The winner of the1995 Appalachian Studies Award is a significant contribution to regional studies as well as to our understanding of American culture during and after World War I.