Customer Reviews

The West Virginia Encyclopedia

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's unfortunate that my home state--a state with such a rich cultural history and some fascinating facts and stories could be condensed into such a dry, boring, uninformative book. Most of the things about WV that I was excited to read about weren't even in there. I read a review somewhere that stated it contained "everything there is to know about West Virginia" -- HARDLY! The nepotism and intellectual inbreeding of the state is clearly evident in what was added and what was not added to this "encyclopedia." What is missing is the down in the dirt, REAL history of the state. I'm not sure if they were trying to cast West Virginia in some kind of whitewashed light, or if they are just that naive, but the editors have done us a serious disservice in trying to contain such a wild, beautiful state in this pathetic volume. The only reason I gave it two stars is that it is about my favorite subject, even if it is skewed.

I absolutely love this book and had to refute the previous review on it. I purchased this book the week that it came out and now I not only have one copy, but two. I have one at my house and one in my classroom. This book is interesting to read and it's really helpful for when people have random questions about West Virginia. This book took years to put together and most of the contributors are "the" experts on their given topics.

This book is a great buy for anyone who is interested in learning West Virginia trivia or the history of The Mountain State.