From the magazine

The paradox of West Virginia

Bruce Anderson
 iStock
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 05 April 2025
issue 05 April 2025

West Virginia. There is a paradox. A state of natural beauty, glorified by mountains and watered by rivers – including the Shenandoah (surely the most beautiful word in American) – carved out of reluctant nature by hard human labour, then divided by slavery and war, but ending on the Union side – it ought to be an honoured political jurisdiction.

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