Books by Ronald L. Lewis

In 1897 a small landholder named Robert Eastham shot and killed timber magnate Frank Thompson in Tucker County, West Virginia, leading to a sensational trial that highlighted a clash between local traditions and modernizing forces. Ronald L. Lewis's book uses this largely forgotten episode as a window into contests over political, environmental, and legal change in turn-of-the-century Appalachia.

Walter F. White joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1918 and became its head in 1929, a position he maintained until his death in 1955. In this comprehensive biography, Zangrando and Lewis seek to provide a reassessment of White within the context of his own time, revising critical interpretations of his career.

In 1880, forest covered two-thirds of West Virginia, but by the 1920s lumbermen had denuded the entire region. This work explores the transformation in the mountain counties precipitated by deforestation. West Virginia provides a site for studying the broader social impact of deforestation.