This updated edition of the 1979 original covers the landmark struggle to save the New River from damming in the 1970s. The grassroots movement emphasized the river's cultural and historical value rather than narrow environmental issues and became one of the great victories of the environmental movement. This edition also includes a new epilogue examining the current ecological status of the New River and the ongoing impact of the original conservation efforts in the face of new environmental threats. The 1979 edition won the Weatherford Award presented by Berea College and the Appalachian Studies Association.

The Appalachian Power Company is an operating company of the American Electric Power Company, the largest electricity producing private electric system in the United States since 1953. The Appalachian Power Company held almost exclusive development rights along the New River since its 1911 charter. From then until the 1940s, it built a few small dams, a very large hydroelectric dam with the highest generating capacity of its time, and the largest steam plant in Virginia on the New River. Besides a few navigation issues, conflicting developments, and brief clashes with the federal government, the Appalachian Power Company's developments along the New River went largely unchallenged until the late-1960s. The Blue Ridge Project was the utility's next large hydroelectric project on the New River. It was slated to impound the waters of the upper New River in Grayson County, Virginia, with two reservoirs extending into the river's headwaters in the counties of Ashe and Alleghany in northwestern North Carolina.