• the politics of reform
  
  

• safety and concerns in the coal industry
  
  

• Corruption and reformisn in the UMWA
  
  

• Corporate land ownership

• desegregation in West Virginia

• Administrative authority and community control in education

• educational resources

• shift from mining and manufacturing to service industries

• outmigration

• environmental concerns in the post-industrial era

• William Casey Marland

• John F. Kennedy

• W. A. "Tony Boyle

• Arnold Miller

• Joseph Yablonski

• William H. Trent

• severance tax debate, 1953

• Democratic primary, 1960

• Farmington disaster, 1968

• Black Lung Association

• Miners for Democracy

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 1954

• State Commission on Civil Rights

• Kanawha textbook controversy

• Arthur M. Recht

• Gaston Caperton

• Arch A. Moore, Jr.

• Pauley v. Kelley

• Master Plan for Education

• outmigration

• environmental degradation

• Office of Surface Mining

• Clean Air Act

Study Questions:

• What were Governor William Marland's recommendations regarding a severance tax on the extraction of natural resources? What was the tax supposed to accomplish? What was the reaction to his proposals?

• What was Tony Boyle's response to the Farmington disaster, and how did this affect his status within the UMWA? What were the grievances of the Black Lung Association, and how did the BLA propose to change the UMWA? How did the Miners for Democracy set out to achieve its reform agenda? What were the results?

• What conclusions can be drawn about West Virginia's historic political economy from Tom Miller's series on land ownership? How does corporate land and resource ownership affect politics, education, and tax revenues?

• What factions were involved in the Kanawha textbook controversy? What interests did they reflect? What affect did rapid cultural changes in the United States have on the textbook controversy? What tactics were employed by the anti-textbook groups? What did the National Education Association conclude about the new guidelines adopted by the Kanawha County Board of Education in November 1974?

• What was the legal basis of the West Virginia Board of Education's master plan of 1983? What were the purposes of the plan? The objective of the finance program? What were the recommendations of Governor Caperton's education committee in 1990?

• What are the consequences for West Virginia of the mass outmigration of people between 1950 and 1990? Where have the West Virginians gone? Is migration always negative? Will the population decline or increase in the future?

• What environmental concerns arise in a region with limited economic alternatives? What is the "jobs versus environment" debate? How might West Virginia attain an adequate standard of living and an environmentally responsible economic development?