A history professor in West Virginia Universitys Eberly College of Arts and Sciences has recently published a new book on the connection between labor and radio during the early days of radio broadcasting in the United States.

Elizabeth Fones-Wolf is the author ofWaves of Opposition: Labor and the Struggle for Democratic Radio,published by University of Illinois Press.

In the book, Fones-Wolf describes and analyzes the battles over radio, when it was a powerful new medium, which helped spark the massive upsurge of organized labor during the Depression.

She demonstrates how radio became a key component of organized labors efforts to contest businessesinfluence of political discourse from the 1930s-1950s. She also explores how the virtual disappearance of labor from the American media today helps explains the marginalization of unions.

Fones-Wolfs research focuses on business, social and labor history in the United States, and her teaching fields include the United States in the 20th century and American economic history. She has written or edited two other books on labor in the United States and has also written numerous articles that were published in history and business journals.

She is the recipient of numerous teaching awards. In 2005, she was one of three finalists for the Faculty Merit Foundation of West Virginias Professor of the Year. She was named West Virginia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in 2002. She has also received the WVU Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching and the Eberly College Outstanding Teacher and Outstanding Researcher Awards.

She earned her doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1990.

For more information, contact her at Elizabeth.Fones-Wolf@mail.wvu.edu or at 304-293-2421, ext. 5239.