American Association

On paternalistic industrialism: Alexander Arthur and the American Association

John Gaventa describes the British paternalism characteristic of late 19th-century industrialists, a philosophy that harnessed absentee land ownership in pursuit of capitalist economic gain. He references Alexander Arthur, Scottish-born entrepreneur, engineer, and president of the American Association, the British investment group that funded absentee land acquisition and industrial development across the Cumberland Gap, as a …

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On the interplay between land ownership and mineral rights

John Gaventa clarifies the interplay between surface land ownership and the exploitative acquisition of below-ground mineral rights by large coal companies in Appalachia. He cites The American Association, a British company that at one time owned 80,000 acres across Clairborne, Bell, Campbell, and Whitley Counties in East Tennessee, as a prime example of absentee corporate …

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