Suchergebnisse

Emigration, immigration -- Superintendents, networks, and Welsh settlement patterns -- Community, republicanism, and social mobility -- Welsh American cultural institutions -- Professional inspectors for a disaster-prone industry -- Ethnic conflict : the Welsh and Irish in anthracite country -- The Slav "invasion" and the Welsh "exodus" -- Welsh American union leadership -- From Nantymoel to Hollywood : the incredible journey of Mary Thomas -- Epilogue: Americanization and Welsh identity

In 1880, ancient-growth forest still covered two-thirds of West Virginia, but by the 1920s lumbermen had denuded the entire region. Ronald Lewis explores the transformation in these mountain counties precipitated by deforestation. As the only state that lies entirely within the Appalachian region, West Virginia provides an ideal site for studying the broader social impact of deforestation in Appalachia, the South, and the eastern United States. Eventually, even ardent supporters of industrialization had reason to contemplate the consequences of unregulated exploitation. Once the timber was gone, the mills closed and the railroads pulled up their tracks leaving behind an environmental disaster and a new class of marginalized rural poor to confront the worst depression in American history.

This volume of the Journal of the Appalachian Studies Association includes a collection of essays exploring the industrialization of the Appalachians and the effect on the economy.