Product Description
by Jerry B. Thomas (Author)
In this paperback edition of An Appalachian New Deal: West Virginia in the Great Depression, Jerry Bruce Thomas examines the economic and social conditions of the state of West Virginia before, during, and after the Great Depression. Thomas's exploration of personal papers by leading political and social figures, newspapers, and the published and unpublished records of federal, state, local, and private agencies, traces a region's response to an economic depression and a presidential stimulus program. This dissection of federal and state policies implemented under Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program reveals the impact of poverty upon political, gender, race, and familial relations within the Mountain State--and the entire country. Through An Appalachian New Deal, Thomas documents the stories of ordinary citizens who survived a period of economic crisis and echoes a message from our nation's past to a new generation enduring financial hardship and uncertainty.
Author Biography
Jerry Bruce Thomas is Professor Emeritus of History at Shepherd University. He earned a BA in political science at West Virginia University and, after Peace Corps service in the Dominican Republic, an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to An Appalachian New Deal, he is also the author of An Appalachian Reawakening: West Virginia and the Perils of the New Machine Age, 1945-1972, soon to be published by West Virginia University Press.
