Recent Publications

Recent Publications Stewart Plein The history of West Virginia is rich and complex. Over 150 years have passed since West Virginia was admitted to the Union, and the desire to understand and relate to our past continues to the present day. The books, theses and dissertations, magazines and journal articles listed here are testament to the continued interest in the state, its people, traditions, and culture. Each of the works cited in this bibliography is available for reading and research at the West Virginia and Regional History Center, the largest historical archives collection and library relating to West Virginia. This list includes works published in 2020, 2021, and 2022, with the addition of a title from 2019 that was not included in previous lists. West Virginia–related titles not found in this bibliography can be located in other resources for publishers, periodicals, magazines, historical societies, and state publications. Special thanks go to Laureen Wilson for her proofreading and editorial assistance, periodicals research, and her work on compiling the bibliography. As always, if you are aware of significant books or articles concerning West Virginia, its people and places, please bring them to my attention. ________ Akren-Dickson, Melanie. Coal Country Connections: How Finding an 1800s Autograph Album Led to a Quest to Find Its Signers in Coal Towns of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Self-published. 2022. 415 pgs. Updated edition with additional information and new color images, previously published as This, Their Friendship’s Monument. Mary Boyd, who lived in the anthracite coal-fields of northeastern Pennsylvania in the late nineteenth century, kept a friendship and autograph album which she filled over the course of 14 years. When the album was rediscovered, author Melanie Akren-Dickson set out to research Boyd and the people who signed her album. Various sources, including online and hard copy records, newspaper articles, interviews, cemetery walks, and family records, revealed a fascinating group of people connected to each other through the album. The signers, who included coal miners, midwestern school teachers, Civil War veterans, and the daughters of a Philadelphia industrial magnate, offer a fascinating glimpse into the world in which they lived. The many of the signers lived in the historic Pennsylvania towns of Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe), Eckley (now the outdoor museum Eckley Miners’ Village), and Old Buck Mountain (no longer extant), while others lived in Freeland, Hazleton, and Philadelphia. Alderson, Emma Botham. Writing Home: A Quaker Immigrant on the Ohio Frontier: The Letters of Emma Botham Alderson. Edited by Donald Ingram Ulin. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press. 2021. 548 pgs. A firsthand account of the life of Emma Alderson, an English immigrant to the Ohio frontier in mid-nineteenth-century America. Alderson documented the five years preceding her death with detail and insight. Her convictions as a Quaker offer unique perspectives on racism, slavery, and abolition; the impending war with Mexico; presidential elections; various religious and utopian movements; and the practices of everyday life in a young country. Introductions and notes situate the letters in relation to their critical, biographical, literary, and historical contexts. Writing Home offers an opportunity for studying immigrant correspondence due to Alderson’s unusually well-documented literary and religious affiliations. The notes and introductions provide background on nearly all the places, individuals, and events mentioned in the letters. Alexander, Brian. The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 2021. 320 pgs. Journalist and author Brian Alexander uses the struggles of an independent community hospital in northwestern Ohio between March 2018 and August 2020 to analyze and illustrate larger issues with the American medical industry. Alternating board-room politics and financial details with stories of uninsured and disadvantaged patients, Alexander documents efforts to keep Community Hospitals and Wellness Centers (CHWC) of Bryan, Ohio, solvent without lowering standards of care. Alexander delves into the complicated history of U.S. health care, describes how the Trump administration’s policies impacted both the hospital’s ability to attract staff and the economic difficulties faced by locals, and explains why CHWC and hospitals like it have struggled to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Alexander argues that no plan will solve America’s health crisis...