Excerpt from Study of Alternatives: Western Pennsylvania Region: Its Landscape, People, and Industry In November 1992, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission, acting under the authority of Public Law 100-698, requested that the National Park Service, Partnerships Branch, undertake four studies of the iron and steel, coal and coke, glass, and aluminum industries in the western Pennsylvania region. The studies were to evaluate the resource bases related to these four industries and develop viable alternatives for their conservation, use, and interpretation. Close coordination with state and local partners, both public and private, was considered vital to the successful completion of these planning efforts. The study team determined that the diverse stories of the political, social, and economic development of western Pennsylvania would guide the methodology of data collection for the resource inventory. The region's industrial heritage cannot be understood completely without some appreciation of the other significant chapters in its history. The stories of the brutal warfare of the colonial era, the explosive American expansion in the early 19th century, the technological advances in transportation, as well as the rise of American industry of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reinforce the fact that the region's role as a vital crossroads and rich resource base remained remarkably consistent over time. The stories of these events, combined with many of the region's resources, would give visitors a clearer understanding of how the evolution of one region can alter the history of an entire nation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Comparing Virginia and Pennsylvania, Majewski explains how slavery undermined the development of the southern economy.