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West Virginia University Press is the only university press, and the largest publisher of any kind, in the state of West Virginia. A part of West Virginia University, they publish books and scholarly journals by authors around the world, with a particular emphasis on Appalachian studies, history, higher education, the social sciences, and interdisciplinary books about energy, environment, and resources. They also publish works of fiction and creative nonfiction, and collaborate on innovative digital publications, notably West Virginia History: An Open Access Reader.

Showing 1-50 of 279 items.

WOODY PLANTS IN WINTER

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 1958
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EARLY ART AND ARTISTS IN WEST VIRGINIA

AN INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2000
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SMOKELESS COAL FIELDS OF WEST VIRGINIA

A BRIEF HISTORY

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2001
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VIA CRUCIS

ESSAYS ON EARLY MEDIEVAL SOURCES AND IDEAS

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2002
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HELIAND

TEXT AND COMMENTARY

West Virginia University Press
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BACKCOUNTRY

CONTEMPORARY WRITING IN WEST VIRGINIA

West Virginia University Press, Vandalia Press

This is as closely-knit an anthology as you are ever likely to see. It is as though a large, extended family were drawing on the same store of family stories, jokes, symbols, landscapes, animals, trees, language, and vernacular. How many snakes are in this book? How many foxes, possums? Fossils? And how very many coal mines? But it is not merely local references that unites these writers. There is a larger vision that ties these works together.

"The connection is not so much in mutual influence, though there is some of that, but in each writer’s total immersion in place. Even those writers who no longer live in the state remember the feel, the physical texture, the overwhelming and enfolding vegetal surround of the place." Editor, Irene McKinney

  • Copyright year: 2002
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The Blackwater Chronicle

West Virginia University Press

West Virginia University English Professor Timothy Sweet edited the second volume in our West Virginia and Appalachia series. The Blackwater Chronicle by Philip Pendleton Kennedy was originally published in 1853, but this wilderness travelogue about the exploration of Canaan Valley has appeal far beyond that time and region. In fact, it was originally published in New York and London, and even in a German edition. This often humorous and always fascinating story, told by Kennedy about the journey he and his colleagues took into yet unexplored territory, will make the reader long for days when there was still wilderness on this continent. It will also be of interest to the outdoorsman and should be viewed as an environmental cautionary tale.

  • Copyright year: 2019
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WEST VIRGINIA AND THE CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2003
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CLASH OF LOYALTIES

A BORDER COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR

West Virginia University Press

 A border county in a border state, Barbour County, West Virginia felt the full terror and tragedy of the Civil War. The wounds of the Civil War cut most bitterly in the border states, that strip of America from Maryland to Kansas, where conflicting loyalties and traditions ripped apart communities, institutions, and families. Barbour County, in the mountainous Northwest of (West) Virginia, is a telling microcosm of the deep divisions which both caused the war and were caused by it. By examining and interpreting long-ignored documents of the times and the personal accounts of the people who were there, Clash of Loyalties offers a startling new view of America's most bitter hour. Nearly half of the military-age men in the county served in the armed forces, almost perfectly divided between the Union and the Confederacy. After West Virginia split with Virginia to rejoin the Union, Confederate soldiers from the regions could not safely visit their homes on furlough, or even send letters to their families. The county's two leading political figures, Samuel Woods and Spencer Dayton, became leaders of the fight for and against secession, dissolved their close personal friendship, and never spoke to one another again. The two factions launched campaigns of terror and intimidation, leading to the burning of several homes, the kidnapping of a sheriff, the murder of a pacifist minister, and the self-imposed exile of many of the county's influential families. The conflicting loyalties crossed nearly all social and economic lines; even the county's slave owners were evenly divided between Union and Confederate sympathies. With a meticulous examination of census and military records, geneologies, period newspapers, tax rolls, eyewitness accounts, and other relevant documents, Clash of Loyalties presents a compelling account of the passion and violence which tore apart Barbour County and the nation.

  • Copyright year: 2003
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THEORIZING ANGLO-SAXON STONE SCULPTURE

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2003
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NAKED BEFORE GOD

UNCOVERING THE BODY IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2003
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WEST VIRGINIA

A HISTORY

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2003
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INSIDE PITCH AND MORE

BASEBALL'S BUSINESS AND THE PUBLIC TRUST

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2004
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HOLLOWS, PEEPERS, AND HIGHLANDERS

AN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN ECOLOGY

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2004
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TRANSNATIONAL WEST VIRGINIA

"ETHNIC COMMUNITIES AND ECONOMIC CHANGE, 1840-1940"

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2002
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BLANCHE LAZZELL

THE LIFE AND WORK OF AN AMERICAN MODERNIST

West Virginia University Press

Blanche Lazzell went from Maidsville, West Virginia, to the leading edge of twentieth-century American art. A member of the prominent art communities of Paris and Provincetown, MA during the '20s and '30s, Lazzell was always on the fringe of important developments in the modern art world. Her studies in Paris led her to adopt the techniques of modernism as well as other emerging styles. Among her groundbreaking works were some of the first examples of abstraction in America. Blanche Lazzell: The Life and Work of an American Modernist is a significant contribution to the history of twentieth-century American art.

Know primarily as a Provincetown printmaker, Lazzell’s full life and career are presented here, generously accompanied by color reproductions of her work, showing the breadth of her accomplishment in painting, printmaking, and hooked rugs. Lazzell's true contribution to American art history was never fully appreciated during her lifetime. A renewed interest in the artist has developed over the past fifteen years, due mostly to the critical appreciation of her color wood block prints. She is worth remembering not only for her own work, but also for her role as a translator of the achievements of the European modernists for her colleagues in America. In Blanche Lazzell: The Life and Work of an American Modernist, nine essays and hundreds of full-color illustrations bring this incredibly talented and influential artist's work to life.

  • Copyright year: 2004
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FIDELITIES

West Virginia University Press, Vandalia Press
  • Copyright year: 2004
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VIVID COMPANION

West Virginia University Press, Vandalia Press
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WONDROUS LOVE

APPALACHIAN CHAMBER MUSIC

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2004
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SPRING WILDFLOWERS OF WEST VIRGINIA

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2005
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Cancer Stories: Lessons in Love, Loss, and Hope

Edited by JOHN TEMPLE and JOEL BEESON
West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2005
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LOST HIGHWAY

West Virginia University Press, Vandalia Press
  • Copyright year: 2005
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FINDING A CLEAR PATH

West Virginia University Press, Vandalia Press
  • Copyright year: 2006
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ANCIENT PRIVILEGES

"BEOWULF,LAW, AND THEMAKING OF GERMANIC ANTIQUITY"

West Virginia University Press

One of the great triumphs of nineteenth-century philology was the development of the wide array of comparative data that underpins the grammars of the Old Germanic dialects, such as Old English, Old Icelandic, Old Saxon, and Gothic. These led to the reconstruction of Common Germanic and Proto-Germanic languages. Many individuals have forgotten that scholars of the same period were interested in reconstructing the body of ancient law that was supposedly shared by all speakers of Germanic. Stefan Jurasinski's Ancient Privileges: Beowulf, Law, and the Making of the Germanic Antiquity recounts how the work of nineteenth-century legal historians actually influenced the editing of Old English texts, most notably Beowulf, in ways that are still preserved in our editions. This situation has been a major contributor to the archaizing of Beowulf. In turn, Jurasinski's careful analysis of its assumptions in light of contemporary research offers a model for scholars to apply to a number of other textual artifacts that have been affected by what was known as the historische Rechtsschule. At the very least, it will change the way you think about Beowulf.

  • Copyright year: 2006
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INNOVATION AND TRADITION IN THE WRITINGS OF THE VENERABLE BEDE

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2006
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PINNICK KINNICK HILL

AN AMERICAN STORY

West Virginia University Press
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GOING

West Virginia University Press, Vandalia Press
  • Copyright year: 2006
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POSTMODERN BEOWULF

A CRITICAL CASEBOOK

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2006
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SURVIVING MAE WEST

West Virginia University Press, Vandalia Press
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SEARCH FOR ORIGINS IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY LONG POEM

"SUMERIAN, HOMERIC, ANGLO-SAXON"

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2007
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THE WAY THINGS ALWAYS HAPPEN HERE

West Virginia University Press, Vandalia Press
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POTOMAC CANAL

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE WATERWAY WEST

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2007
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BRINGING DOWN THE MOUNTAINS

THE IMPACT OF MOUTAINTOP REMOVAL SURFACE COAL MINING ON SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA COMMUNITIES

West Virginia University Press

Coal is West Virginia’s bread and butter. For more than a century, West Virginia has answered the energy call of the nation—and the world—by mining and exporting its coal. In 2004, West Virginia’s coal industry provided almost forty thousand jobs directly related to coal, and it contributed $3.5 billion to the state’s gross annual product. And in the same year, West Virginia led the nation in coal exports, shipping over 50 million tons of coal to twenty-three countries. Coal has made millionaires of some and paupers of many. For generations of honest, hard-working West Virginians, coal has put food on tables, built homes, and sent students to college. But coal has also maimed, debilitated, and killed.

Bringing Down the Mountains provides insight into how mountaintop removal has affected the people and the land of southern West Virginia. It examines the mechanization of the mining industry and the power relationships between coal interests, politicians, and the average citizen. Shirley Stewart Burns holds a BS in news-editorial journalism, a master’s degree in social work, and a PhD in history with an Appalachian focus, from West Virginia University. A native of Wyoming County in the southern West Virginia coalfields and the daughter of an underground coal miner, she has a passionate interest in the communities, environment, and histories of the southern West Virginia coalfields. She lives in Charleston, West Virginia.

  • Copyright year: 2007
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DEFENDING THE HOMELAND

"HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON RADICALISM, TERRORISM, AND STATE RESPONSES"

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2007
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KARTOON KINGS

THE GRAPHIC WORK OF SIMON GRENNEN AND CHRISTOPHER SPERANDIO

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2007
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LEADING THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

West Virginia University Press, West Virginia University
  • Copyright year: 2007
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CROSS AND CULTURE IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

STUDIES IN HONOR OF GEORGE HARDIN BROWN

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2008
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WITCHES, GHOSTS, AND SIGNS

FOLKLORE OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS

West Virginia University Press, Vandalia Press
  • Copyright year: 2008
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HISTORICAL ATLAS OF WEST VIRGINIA

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2008
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MATEWAN BEFORE THE MASSACRE

"POLITICS, COAL AND THE ROOTS OF CONFLICT IN A WEST VIRGINIA MINING COMMUNITY"

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2008
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THE SAFETY OF DEEPER WATER

West Virginia University Press, Vandalia Press
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CULTURE, CLASS, AND POLITICS IN MODERN APPALACHIA

ESSAYS IN HONOR OF RONALD L. LEWIS

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2009
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PARADOX HILL

"FROM APPALACHIA TO LUNAR SHORE, REVISED EDITION"

West Virginia University Press, Vandalia Press
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EAST AFRICA

AN INTRODUCTORY HISTORY

West Virginia University Press
  • Copyright year: 2009
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