- Culture, Class, and Politics in Modern Appalachia: Essays in Honor of Ronald L. Lewis
Though other nationally known historians have served at West Virginia University, Professor Emeritus Ronald L. Lewis is unique in that his colleagues, as well as former and current students, have taken bold steps to honor his work. When Lewis announced his retirement, they organized the annual Rush Dew Holt Conference in 2007 to specifically honor his contributions in teaching and research. That conference, "Transforming Appalachian Scholarship," was followed by this collection of eleven essays and is intended as a lasting tribute to his influence in West Virginia, regional, and Appalachian studies.
The eleven chapters are welcome additions to Appalachian historiography and their value is enhanced by an introductory essay by Dwight B. Billings who delivered the 2007 Callahan lecture at the Holt Conference. Billings was a prime mover in creating the Appalachian Studies Association, and he used his unparalleled understanding of Appalachian studies (and of Ron Lewis) to delineate the "Old Ways, New Ways, and WVU Ways" of analyzing the Appalachian experience. Early studies erroneously pictured a colonial Appalachian region of isolated, powerless, and culturally deprived whites. However, after Lewis's arrival in Morgantown in 1985, WVU students began to study West Virginia and the region with a more global view, creating a "WVU Way" of Appalachian studies.
This collection of essays expands on the life of the people. In the first section, Deborah Weiner describes how Jewish and other coalfield merchants found ways to survive and prosper in areas where coal companies paid in scrip, and where coal company stores enjoyed special access to miners and their wages. Paul Rakes then compares mining to combat. Rakes (a former miner and combat veteran) used his unique perspective to develop the theme that the dangers that miners face are similar to men and women at war. As in warfare, he contends that the industry is willing to accept a [End Page 93] certain number of casualties among miners in order to achieve its goals. Jennifer Egolf investigates an early 1920s coal strike in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, finding tension between strikers and employers who tried to paint all strike activities as instigated by "reds" since recent immigrants were among the strikers. Her work reminds us that not all strike-related activities occurred in southern West Virginia. Finally, Connie Park Rice presents a poignant and well-written biographical essay about Dewey W. Fox who overcame racial discrimination to become a force in the development of education in Monongalia County.
In the next section, the authors take a closer look at traditional interpretations of the struggle between labor and management. Michael Workman's piece on the Fairmont coalfield notes how local entrepreneurs organized their capital to exploit the natural resources and then paired with local workers to restrict immigration. One of them even courted unionization to gain support for his political ambitions. The famous Matewan Massacre was the result of years of internecine political and economic fighting among competing factions in Mingo County as much as it was the struggle for unionization between miners and operators. Rebecca Bailey's research demonstrates how thorough examination of even famous (notorious) incidents is needed for an accurate historical account. Richard Mulcahy has opened a new area for research in health care. His tale of the United Mine Workers of America Welfare & Retirement Fund describes how the fund improved health care for all people in the areas it served in spite of governmental neglect of basic needs. John Hennen traces the efforts, some successful, of the Service Employees International Union, Local 1199 to organize workers in Appalachian hospitals. Hospital working conditions and low wages made organizing attractive but difficult to achieve or retain.
The final section investigates how political activity has shaped both policy and the landscape. Jeffery Cook finds that former governor and coal operator A. B. Fleming took the lead in establishing safety procedures in his coal mines, and, by example, those of...