Reviewed by Deborah R. Weiner | Reviews | Journal of American Ethnic History, 27.4

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Reviewed by Deborah R. Weiner | Reviews | Journal of American Ethnic History, 27.4 | The History Cooperative

Reviews

*Glass Towns: Industry, Labor, and Political Economy in Appalachia, 1890–1930s.* By Ken Fones-Wolf. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007. xxviii + 236 pp. Maps, photos, tables, notes, and index. $65.00 (cloth); $25.00 (paper).
This book on the glass industry in West Virginia explores the impact of industrial change on workers, communities, and the Appalachian region. But the goal of author Ken Fones-Wolf is not simply to tell a linear cause-and-effect story; rather, it is to show how labor and capital, culture and technology, politics and geography, local events and international trends all interacted and impinged on one another to influence regional development.	1
Fones-Wolf successfully accomplishes this complex task by using a case study approach. Focusing on three towns, each hosting a different branch of the glass industry (tableware, window glass, and containers), he offers a clear and concise description of how a variety of forces affected the local course of events in each town. He then draws connections among these case studies to reach larger conclusions. First and foremost, the study addresses the question of why Appalachian economic development failed to reach its full potential despite the region's rich natural resources. Along the way, Glass Towns addresses issues of ethnicity, industrial relations, and political culture.	. . .

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