The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia's Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.20 (922 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0802123317 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 448 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-05-22 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Vann Woodward Professor of History, Yale UniversityEngaging and easy to follow. James Green has made sense of a half century of violent confrontation.”John Sayles, writer and director of MatewanGreen mines the historically dark seams of the sanguinary Mountain State coal wars that raged in the early decades of the 20th century. He tells a dark, often despairing story from a century ago that rings true today.”Pittsburgh Post-GazetteDeepens our understanding of well-known labor conflicts The Devil Is Here in These Hills not only succeeds in b
"Entertaining Account of Little-known Part of American History" according to Mitiman. Recently the PBS series "American Experience" featured a documentary based largely on the content of this fine book. As a native West Virginian, I am always interested in the history of my home state, but this part of its history was something of which I had only been vaguely aware, until now. Few people know that America's largest armed insurrection, aside from the Civil War, took place in the sout. Great Book My Grandfather, Great Grandfather, and most of their brothers all worked the mines in eastern Ohio back in the 20's thru the 60's. My Dad told me stories about the mine owners saying like the said in the book "Make sure that mule don't get killed, a man I can replace but mules cost money". He talked about the company store and how the mine owned all the houses where the men and their families lived.. "Rarely told history" according to buskinRarely told history buskin4jesus I've lived in WV for the last ten years but had little awareness of the depth of danger and exploitation involved in earlier days of WV mining. I should have found out sooner,both to appreciate my adopted state's history and to further temper my belief in the merits of capitalism with the witness of the heartlessness that human selfishness and greed can spawn.The story is well drawn, probably a task. jesus. I've lived in WV for the last ten years but had little awareness of the depth of danger and exploitation involved in earlier days of WV mining. I should have found out sooner,both to appreciate my adopted state's history and to further temper my belief in the merits of capitalism with the witness of the heartlessness that human selfishness and greed can spawn.The story is well drawn, probably a task
The state’s high-quality coal drove American expansion and industrialization, but for tens of thousands of laborers, including boys as young as ten, mining life showed the bitter irony of the state motto, Mountaineers are Always Free.” Attempts to unionize were met with stiff resistance. From before the dawn of the 20th century until the arrival of the New Deal, one of the most protracted and deadly labor struggles in American history was waged in West Virginia. Fundamental rights were bent, then broken, and the violence evolved from bloody skirmishes to open armed conflict, as an army of miners marched to an explosive showdown. In The Devil is Here in These Hills, celebrated labor historian James Green tells the story of West Virginia and coal like never before.The value of West Virginia’s coalfields had been known for decades, and after rail arrived in the 1870s, industrialists pushed fast into the wilderness, digging mines and building company towns where they w