The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia's Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom - Softcover

Green, James

  • 4.32 out of 5 stars
    637 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780802124654: The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia's Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0802124658 ISBN 13: 9780802124654
Publisher: Grove Press, 2016

Synopsis

"The most comprehensive and comprehendible history of the West Virginia Coal War I've ever read." —John Sayles, writer and director of Matewan

On September 1, 1912, the largest, most protracted, and deadliest working-class uprising in American history was waged in West Virginia. On one side were powerful corporations whose millions bought armed guards and political influence. On the other side were fifty thousand mine workers, the nation's largest labor union, and the legendary "miners' angel," Mother Jones. The fight for unionization and civil rights sparked a political crisis that verged on civil war, stretching from the creeks and hollows of the Appalachians to the US Senate. Attempts to unionize were met with stiff resistance. Fundamental rights were bent—then broken. The violence evolved from bloody skirmishes to open armed conflict, as an army of more than fifty thousand miners finally marched to an explosive showdown.

Extensively researched and vividly told, this definitive book about an often-overlooked chapter of American history, "gives this backwoods struggle between capital and labor the due it deserves. [Green] tells a dark, often despairing story from a century ago that rings true today" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

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About the Author

James Green is the author of five books, including the critically acclaimed Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America. Green received his PhD in history from Yale University and is a professor of history emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

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Publisher
Grove Press
Publication date
2016
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0802124658
ISBN 13 
9780802124654
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
1
Number of pages
448
Rating
  • 4.32 out of 5 stars
    637 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780802123312: The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia's Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0802123317 ISBN 13:  9780802123312
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2015
Hardcover