Transforming the Appalachian Countryside

Transforming the Appalachian Countryside
Author :
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages : 367
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780807862971
ISBN-13 : 0807862975
Rating : 4/5 (975 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Transforming the Appalachian Countryside by : Ronald L. Lewis

Download or read book Transforming the Appalachian Countryside written by Ronald L. Lewis and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2000-11-09 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. Most of West Virginia was still dominated by a backcountry economy when the industrial transition began. In short order, however, railroads linked remote mountain settlements directly to national markets, hauling away forest products and returning with manufactured goods and modern ideas. Workers from the countryside and abroad swelled new mill towns, and merchants ventured into the mountains to fulfill the needs of the growing population. To protect their massive investments, capitalists increasingly extended control over the state's legal and political systems. Eventually, though, 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.


Transforming the Appalachian Countryside Related Books

Transforming the Appalachian Countryside
Language: en
Pages: 367
Authors: Ronald L. Lewis
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2000-11-09 - Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

GET EBOOK

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 tr
Trans-Appalachian Frontier, Third Edition
Language: en
Pages: 697
Authors: Malcolm J. Rohrbough
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-01-09 - Publisher: Indiana University Press

GET EBOOK

The first American frontier lay just beyond the Appalachian Mountains and along the Gulf Coast. Here, successive groups of pioneers built new societies and deve
Our Roots Run Deep as Ironweed
Language: en
Pages: 225
Authors: Shannon Elizabeth Bell
Categories: Nature
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-10-30 - Publisher: University of Illinois Press

GET EBOOK

Motivated by a deeply rooted sense of place and community, Appalachian women have long fought against the damaging effects of industrialization. In this collect
The Roots of Appalachian Christianity
Language: en
Pages: 350
Authors: Elder John Sparks
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-10-17 - Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

GET EBOOK

Appalachia's distinctive brand of Christianity has always been something of a puzzle to mainline American congregations. Often treated as pagan and unchurched,
Appalachian Reckoning
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Anthony Harkins
Categories: Appalachian Region
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019 - Publisher:

GET EBOOK

In Hillbilly elegy, J.D. Vance described how his family moved from poverty to an upwardly mobile clan while navigating the collective demons of the past. The bo