Description
Between 1880 and 1922, the coal fields of southern West Virginia witnessed two bloody and protracted strikes, the formation of 2 competing unions, and the biggest armed conflict in American labor history—a week-long battle between 20,000 coal miners and 5,000 state police, deputy sheriffs, and mine guards. These events ended in an untold selection of deaths, indictments of over 550 coal miners for rise up and treason, and four declarations of martial law. Corbin argues that these violent events were collective and militant acts of aggression interconnected and conditioned by decades of oppression. His have a look at is going a ways toward breaking down the old stereotypes of Appalachian and coal mining culture. This second edition comprises a new preface and afterword by creator David A. Corbin.