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The Arthurdale Community School: Education and Reform in Depression Era Appalachia by Sam F. Stack, Jr.

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Arthurdale, West Virginia, about 15 miles southeast of Morgantown, is a community built in 1933 by the Subsistence Homesteads Division of the U. S. Department of Interior, part of President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal." It was the very first of 34 communities designed to provide families with a decent home and enough land to provide basic subsistence and Eleanor Roosevelt visited it. Like some of the other homestead communities, Arthurdale was created in hopes to served displaced and unemployed area coal miners. Most of these communities are still pretty vibrant, although many homesteads have changed hands, and many homes have been remodeled. The school was created to be the center of the community, and its ideals included John Dewey's disdain for competition and a desire to make education relevant to the Appalachian experience. "No one is better qualified to guide us through the complexities of the Arthurdale experiment than Professor Stack." -- Richard Angelo.

"It is a much-needed study of progressive education on the local level in a rural, poor region." -- The Journal of Southern History. "Stack is to be commended for broadening our perspectives on both progressive education and Arthurdale." -- West Virginia History. This is the second book about a community school by the  author, Sam F. Stack, Jr., who teaches at West Virginia University. He is also the co-editor of a book of essays by John Dewey.

Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, a 2020 first paperback edition of a 2016 release. 197 pages withe an Index, Notes, Bibliography and photos. Trade paperback, $30.00