Glass Towns: Industry, Labor, and Political Economy in Appalachia, 1890-1930s

While rich in natural resources, Appalachia remains a nationwide symbol of poverty. Ken Fones-Wolf deftly combines labor and business history to examine how a promising partnership between West Virginia and the glass industry failed to improve the state's political economy.

State leaders saw glass as a potential cornerstone industry that promised high wages, reinvestment in the local economy, and a complement to the state's abundance of timber and fossil fuels. Fones-Wolf draws on case studies of three glass production hubs to analyze the impact of industry on local populations and the Belgian- and French-born craftsmen who took jobs in the area. Throughout, Fones-Wolf examines patterns of global industrial restructuring, the ways workers reshaped workplace culture and political action, and employer strategies for responding to global competition, unreliable markets, and growing labor costs at the end of the nineteenth century.

Incisive and rich in on-the-ground detail, Glass Towns examines an Appalachian pursuit of self-sustaining development.