Ken Fones-Wolf, Ph.D.

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF HISTORY

Teaching Fields

Appalachia
U.S. working class
20th Century U.S.

Degrees

PhD, Temple University, 1986
MA, University of Maryland, 1979
BA, University of Maryland, 1973

Research Interests

Much of my career has focused on labor and social history, particularly the intersection of religious belief and working-class activism. With my wife, Elizabeth, I recently coauthored Struggle for the Soul of the Postwar South, which examined the role of religion in one of the pivotal movements in U.S. labor history, the CIO’s Southern Organizing Campaign following World War II. That work emphasized white evangelical Protestants. For my next project, I hope to explore the relationship of black churches and the labor movement during the CIO years (1935-1955). I also serve as the senior editor of the Labor and Working-Class History entries for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia in American History.

Courses Offered

HIST 259: United States, 1865-1918
HIST 473: Appalachian History
HIST 477: Working Class America
HIST 763: Readings in 20th Century U.S.
HIST 764: Research in 20th Century U.S.
HIST 773: Readings in Appalachian Regional History
HIST 774: Research Seminar in Appalachian Regional History

Publications

Struggle for the Soul of the South: White Protestants and Operation Dixie, with Elizabeth Fones-Wolf (University of Illinois Press, forthcoming 2015).
http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/84rbt8sy9780252039034.html

Culture, Class, and Politics in Modern Appalachia (WVU Press, 2009)

Glass Towns: Industry, Labor and Political Economy in Appalachia, 1890-1930s (University of Illinois Press, 2007).

Transnational West Virginia (WVU Press, 2002)

The German-American Radical Press (University of Illinois Press, 1992)

Trade Union Gospel (Temple University Press, 1989)