Published in 1999, this is a second edition of People, Politics and Economic Life. The original workbook's intention was to be a supplementary text for courses on regional studies, geography, history, and social sciences. The main focus was on teaching students how to explore issues facing different American regions with a special emphasis on Appalachia. Data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Appalachian Regional Commission, and other agencies that were originally collected for the first edition, have been updated in the second edition. New chapters have been added on Appalachia as a region that serve to balance out the quantitative material, definitions have been changed to reflect current research on Appalachia, and a section has been added on how to use the internet to research and obtain information from the national, regional, and county levels.