History 153 West Virginia History is an upper division undergraduate course designed to provide students with an overview of the state's historical foundations and development. West Virginia's early history began with European exploration and settlement, a growing sectional separation from Virginia, and cul
History 153 West Virginia History is an upper division undergraduate course designed to provide students with an overview of the state's historical foundations and development. West Virginia's early history began with European exploration and settlement, a growing sectional separation from Virginia, and culminated with separate statehood for West Virginia during the Civil War. During the first decades of its existence, West Virginia continued to be an overwhelmingly rural-agricultural society. Between 1890 and 1920, however, a dramatic industrial transition driven by the timber and coal industries transformed West Virginia into a rural-industrial society. The capital that poured into development of railroads, mills, mines was matched by the influx of a million people seeking employment in the booming new economy reached a peak 