An Appalachian reawakening : West Virginia and the perils of the new machine age, 1945-1972 / Jerry Bruce Thomas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thomas, Jerry Bruce, 1941-

Series:

West Virginia and Appalachia ; 12.

West Virginia and Appalachia ; v. 12

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social change--West Virginia--History--20th century.

Social change.

West Virginia--History--20th century.

West Virginia.

West Virginia--Social conditions--20th century.

West Virginia--Politics and government--20th century.

West Virginia--Economic conditions--20th century.

Physical Description:

x, 470 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Morgantown, W. Va. : West Virginia University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

As the long boom of post-World War II economic expansion spread across the globe, dreams of white picket fences, democratic ideals, and endless opportunities flourished within the United States. Middle America experienced a period of affluent stability built upon a modern age of industrialization. Yet for the people of Appalachia, this new era brought economic, social, and environmental devastation, preventing many from realizing the American Dream. Some families suffered in silence; some joined a mass exodus from the mountains; while others, trapped by unemployment, poverty, illness, and injury became dependent upon welfare. As the one state most completely Appalachian, West Virginia symbolized the region's dilemma, even as it provided much of the labor and natural resources that fueled the nation's prosperity. "An Appalachian Reawakening: West Virginia and the Perils of the New Machine Age, 1945-1972" recounts the difficulties the state of West Virginia faced during the post-World War II period. While documenting this turmoil, this valuable analysis also traces the efforts of the New Frontier and Great Society programs, which stimulated maximum feasible participation and lead to the ultimate rise of grass roots activities and organizations that improved life and labor in the region and undermined the notion of Appalachian fatalism.

Contents:

Front Cover

West Virginia and Appalachia Series Page

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

A New Machine Age in the Hills

Appalachian Contradiction

A Revolution in Coal

The UMWA Embraces the Revolution

The Fade of the Mountain Farm

A General Economic Decline

West Virginians and the Mass Culture of the Age

The Great Migration: Leaving "Those Hills, the Place I Call Home"

Conclusion

American Paradox, Appalachian Stereotype

The Alienation of the Land

Horse-and-Buggy Vestiges

The Patteson Era

McCarthyism: The Second Red Scare

"Like a Bolt of Lightning": Marland's Severance Tax Proposal

Hard Times and the Search for Panaceas

Marland: Flawed Champion of Change

The Emergence of Cecil Underwood

The Challenges of Education in the Age of Sputnik

A Changing of the Guard

A Deteriorating Economy and Agonizing Reappraisals

"An American Paradox": Imperfections in the Glare of National Attention

Planning for Regional Action

Affection in Adversity

Civil Rights in the New Machine Age

African Americans in West Virginia: Balancing Two Segregationist Parties

Jim Crow and the Impact of the Revolution in Coal

Desegregating the Schools: The Impact of Brown

A Rehearsal for Desegregation

Persistent Segregation

Integrating Higher Education

Integrating the Broader Society: A Grassroots Awakening

Churches and Civil Rights

Good Intentions: The New Frontier and the War on Poverty

Structural Unemployment, Automation, and the Culture of Poverty

The View from Megalopolis

A "Robber Barron" of the New Frontier

The Centennial: Accentuating the Positive

LBJ and the War on Poverty

Hulett C. Smith's Sin of Omission

Challenges of "Creative Federalism"

Disappointments of the Crash Program.

From Head Start to VISTA

Charleston as Prototype: Community Action and "Maximum Feasible Participation"

Hardy and McDowell: Appalachian Models for the War on Poverty

Reaction in West Virginia

Guns Over Butter: OEO in Retreat

Reorganizing the State OEO

"Rethinking OEO's Approach": Assessing McDowell and Kanawha

The ARC: A Lost Opportunity?

Raising Hell in the Hillsand Hollows: AVs, VISTAs, and Community Action

Huey Perry and the Mingo Model for "Maximum Feasible Participation"

The Rise of the Appalachian Volunteers

AVs in West Virginia: "Outsiders and Trouble Makers" or "the Best Hope for Change"?

Rising Militancy in Appalachia

AVs Under Attack

Governor Smith Closes Ranks with the Critics

Assessing AVs and VISTAs

West Virginia's War on Poverty in Retrospect

From the Silver Bridge to Farmington and Rumblings at the Grassroots

Prelude: The Silver Bridge

A Shaken Political Structure

The Fair Elections Movement

The King and Kennedy Assassinations

A Long Hot Summer

"The Lord Voted for Us": The 1968 Election

Campus Activism

John L.'s Broken Dream

"78-4": Hominy Falls and Farmington

Black Lung: "The Road to a Dusty Death"

Organizing the Black Lung Coalition

An Appalachian Reawakening: The Black Lung Association, Miners for Democracy, and the New Feminism

"How Not to Do It": The Waning of the Poverty War

"A Divine Right to Breathe": The Miners' Revolt of 1969

"I Want You All to Keep the Fight Up": Murder and Reform in the UMWA

West Virginia Women and the New Feminism

Arch Moore: "An Egocentric Style of Government"

The Strip Mining Dilemma and a Climactic Debate

Early Strip Mining

Strip Mining's Economic Advantages and Environmental Challenges

State Regulatory Efforts

The Battle to Abolish Strip Mining.

The Fight for a Federal Ban

The Stanford Report: Environmental Devastation or Economic Disaster

The Election of 1972: A Strip-Mining Referendum?

Buffalo Creek: Appalachian Apotheosis

Gob Piles and the Environment

The Dams of Buffalo Creek Hollow

The Dam Break

The Aftermath: A Familiar Script

An Act of God?

Kai Erikson and the Persisting Stereotype

Preventing Another Buffalo Creek?

Epilogue: Another Reawakening?

Notes

Good Intentions

Raising Hell in the Hills and Hollows

From the Silver Bridge to Farmington

An Appalachian Reawakening

Buffalo Creek

Epilogue

Bibliography

Manuscript Collections

Oral History

Newspapers and Periodicals

Printed Documents, Government Publications

Books

Articles, Lectures

Unpublished Dissertations and Theses

Electronic Sources

Sound Recordings

Video Recordings

Index

Back Cover.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 422-442) and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-933202-59-9

OCLC:

794700683

Publisher Number:

2027/heb32019 hdl