Download or read book Fighting King Coal written by Shannon Elizabeth Bell and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2016-03-18 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of why so few people suffering from environmental hazards and pollution choose to participate in environmental justice movements. In the coal-mining region of Central Appalachia, mountaintop-removal mining and coal-industry-related flooding, water contamination, and illness have led to the emergence of a grassroots, women-driven environmental justice movement. But the number of local activists is small relative to the affected population, and recruiting movement participants from within the region is an ongoing challenge. In Fighting King Coal, Shannon Elizabeth Bell examines an understudied puzzle within social movement theory: why so few of the many people who suffer from industry-produced environmental hazards and pollution rise up to participate in social movements aimed at bringing about social justice and industry accountability. Using the coal-mining region of Central Appalachia as a case study, Bell investigates the challenges of micromobilization through in-depth interviews, participant observation, content analysis, geospatial viewshed analysis, and an eight-month “Photovoice” project—an innovative means of studying, in real time, the social dynamics affecting activist involvement in the region. Although the Photovoice participants took striking photographs and wrote movingly about the environmental destruction caused by coal production, only a few became activists. Bell reveals the importance of local identities to the success or failure of local recruitment efforts in social movement struggles, ultimately arguing that, if the local identities of environmental justice movements are lost, the movements may also lose their power.
Download or read book Fighting King Coal written by Shannon Elizabeth Bell and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2016-03-25 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contextualizing the Case : Central Appalachia --Micro-Level Processes and Social Movement Participation -- The Depletion of Social Capital in Coalfield Communities -- Identity and Environmental Justice Movement Participation -- Cognitive Liberation and Coal Industry Ideology -- Cognitive Liberation and Hidden Destruction in Central Appalachia -- Photovoice in Five Coalfield Communities -- Becoming, and Un-Becoming, an Activist.
Download or read book Fighting King Coal written by Shannon Elizabeth Bell and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 786 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book King Coal written by Upton Sinclair and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "King Coal is a 1917 novel by Upton Sinclair that describes the poor working conditions in the coal mining industry in the western United States during the 1910s, from the perspective of a single protagonist, Hal Warner"--OCLC.
Download or read book The Road to Blair Mountain written by Charles B. Keeney and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Keeney delivers a riveting and propulsive story about a nine-year battle to save sacred ground that was the site of the largest labor uprising in American history. . . . He unveils a powerful playbook on successful activism that will inspire countless others for generations to come." --Eric Eyre, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic In 1921 Blair Mountain in southern West Virginia was the site of the country's bloodiest armed insurrection since the Civil War, a battle pitting miners led by Frank Keeney against agents of the coal barons intent on quashing organized labor. It was the largest labor uprising in US history. Ninety years later, the site became embroiled in a second struggle, as activists came together to fight the coal industry, state government, and the military- industrial complex in a successful effort to save the battlefield--sometimes dubbed "labor's Gettysburg"--from destruction by mountaintop removal mining. The Road to Blair Mountain is the moving and sometimes harrowing story of Charles Keeney's fight to save this irreplaceable landscape. Beginning in 2011, Keeney--a historian and great-grandson of Frank Keeney--led a nine-year legal battle to secure the site's placement on the National Register of Historic Places. His book tells a David-and-Goliath tale worthy of its own place in West Virginia history. A success story for historic preservation and environmentalism, it serves as an example of how rural, grassroots organizations can defeat the fossil fuel industry.
Download or read book Our Roots Run Deep as Ironweed written by Shannon Elizabeth Bell and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2013-10-30 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Motivated by a deeply rooted sense of place and community, Appalachian women have long fought against the damaging effects of industrialization. In this collection of interviews, sociologist Shannon Elizabeth Bell presents the voices of twelve Central Appalachian women, environmental justice activists fighting against mountaintop removal mining and its devastating effects on public health, regional ecology, and community well-being. Each woman narrates her own personal story of injustice and tells how that experience led her to activism. The interviews--many of them illustrated by the women's "photostories"--describe obstacles, losses, and tragedies. But they also tell of new communities and personal transformations catalyzed through activism. Bell supplements each narrative with careful notes that aid the reader while amplifying the power and flow of the activists' stories. Bell's analysis outlines the relationship between Appalachian women's activism and the gendered responsibilities they feel within their families and communities. Ultimately, Bell argues that these women draw upon a broader "protector identity" that both encompasses and extends the identity of motherhood that has often been associated with grassroots women's activism. As protectors, the women challenge dominant Appalachian gender expectations and guard not only their families but also their homeplaces, their communities, their heritage, and the endangered mountains that surround them. 30% of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to organizations fighting for environmental justice in Central Appalachia.
Download or read book King Coal written by Upton Sinclair and published by Standard Ebooks. This book was released on 2023-05-01T21:43:50Z with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: King Coal explores the lives of coal miners in early 20th century America. The story follows a privileged student who takes a job as a miner to gain firsthand experience of harsh conditions and mistreatment of workers. The protagonist is shocked by what he discovers and becomes an advocate for the miners, leading them in their fight against the mine owners and the political system that supports them. Sinclair’s writing style is known for its vivid descriptions and its ability to bring to life the characters and their struggles. Like much of his work, King Coal is a fictitious account of real issues. The novel is based on the author’s research in Colorado during the coal strikes of 1913–14, and is considered a classic of the muckraking genre that exposed the social and economic problems of the time. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.
Download or read book Death in Mud Lick written by Eric Eyre and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Critics’ Top Ten Book of the Year * 2021 Edgar Award Winner Best Fact Crime * A Lit Hub Best Book of The Year From a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter at the Charleston Gazette-Mail, a “powerful,” (The New York Times) urgent, and heartbreaking account of the corporate greed that pumped millions of pain pills into small Appalachian towns, decimating communities. In a pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, 12 million opioid pain pills were distributed in just three years to a town with a population of 382 people. One woman, after losing her brother to overdose, was desperate for justice. Debbie Preece’s fight for accountability for her brother’s death took her well beyond the Sav-Rite Pharmacy in coal country, ultimately leading to three of the biggest drug wholesalers in the country. She was joined by a crusading lawyer and by local journalist, Eric Eyre, who uncovered a massive opioid pill-dumping scandal that shook the foundation of America’s largest drug companies—and won him a Pulitzer Prize. Part Erin Brockovich, part Spotlight, Death in Mud Lick details the clandestine meetings with whistleblowers; a court fight to unseal filings that the drug distributors tried to keep hidden, a push to secure the DEA pill-shipment data, and the fallout after Eyre’s local paper, the Gazette-Mail, the smallest newspaper ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, broke the story. Eyre follows the opioid shipments into individual counties, pharmacies, and homes in West Virginia and explains how thousands of Appalachians got hooked on prescription drugs—resulting in the highest overdose rates in the country. But despite the tragedy, there is also hope as citizens banded together to create positive change—and won. “A product of one reporter’s sustained outrage [and] a searing spotlight on the scope and human cost of corruption and negligence” (The Washington Post) Eric Eyre’s intimate portrayal of a national public health crisis illuminates the shocking pattern of corporate greed and its repercussions for the citizens of West Virginia—and the nation—to this day.
Download or read book The Devil Is Here in These Hills written by James Green and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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).
Download or read book Coal Wars written by Richard Martin and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2015-04-14 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the late 18th century, when it emerged as a source of heating and, later, steam power, coal has brought untold benefits to mankind. Even today, coal generates almost 45 percent of the world's power. Our modern technological society would be inconceivable without coal and the energy it provides. Unfortunately, that society will not survive unless we wean ourselves off coal. The largest single source of greenhouse gases, coal is responsible for 43 percent of the world's carbon emissions. Richard Martin, author of SuperFuel, argues that to limit catastrophic climate change, we must find a way to power our world with less polluting energy sources, and we must do it in the next couple of decades—or else it is "game over." It won't be easy: as coal plants shut down across the United States, and much of Europe turns to natural gas, coal use is growing in the booming economies of Asia— particularly China and India. Even in Germany, where nuclear power stations are being phased out in the wake of the Fukushima accident, coal use is growing. Led by the Sierra Club and its ambitious "Beyond Coal" campaign, environmentalists hope to drastically reduce our dependence on coal in the next decade. But doing so will require an unprecedented contraction of an established, lucrative, and politically influential worldwide industry. Big Coal will not go gently. And its decline will dramatically change lives everywhere—from Appalachian coal miners and coal company executives to activists in China's nascent environmental movement. Based on a series of journeys into the heart of coal land, from Wyoming to West Virginia to China's remote Shanxi Province, hundreds of interviews with people involved in, or affected by, the effort to shrink the industry, and deep research into the science, technology, and economics of the coal industry, Coal Wars chronicles the dramatic stories behind coal's big shutdown—and the industry's desperate attempts to remain a global behemoth. A tour de force of literary journalism, Coal Wars will be a milestone in the climate change battle.
Download or read book Big Coal written by Jeff Goodell and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2007-04-03 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times–Bestselling Author:“Should be ready by anyone who owns a microwave, or an iPod, or a table lamp, which is to say everyone.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year Coal is still a significant source of power in the United States—and coal mining is still a deadly and environmentally destructive industry. Much of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year comes from coal-fired power plants, and in recent decades air pollution from coal plants has killed more than half a million Americans. In this eye-opening call to action, Jeff Goodell explains the costs and consequences of America’s addiction to coal and discusses how we can kick the habit. “[A] compelling indictment . . . powerful.” —The New York Times Book Review “Goodell’s description of the mining-related deaths, the widespread health consequences of burning coal and the impact on our planet’s increasingly fragile ecosystem make for compelling reading, but . . . are not what lift this book out of the ordinary. That distinction belongs to Goodell’s fieldwork, which takes him to Atlanta, West Virginia, Wyoming, China and beyond.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Goodell does a first-rate job of balancing environmental concerns with interviews from the human faces associated with ‘Big Coal’.” —Library Journal
Download or read book King Coal written by Upton Cinclair and published by . This book was released on 2017-12-15 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: King Coal is a 1917 novel by Upton Sinclair that describes the poor working conditions in the coal mining industry in the western United States during the 1910s, from the perspective of a single protagonist, Hal Warner. As in his earlier work, The Jungle, Sinclair uses the novel to express his socialist viewpoint. The book is based on the 1913-1914 Colorado coal strikes and written just after the Ludlow massacre. The sequel to King Coal was posthumously published under the title, The Coal War. Odin's Library Classics is dedicated to bringing the world the best of humankind's literature from throughout the ages. Carefully selected, each work is unabridged from classic works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama.
Download or read book The Coal War written by Upton Sinclair and published by Boulder : Colorado Associated University Press. This book was released on 1976 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The son of a prominent coal magnate, Hal Warner is horrified by the dangerous working conditions, long hours, and starvation wages endured by the men who toil in his family's mines. He tries to rouse other members of his privileged class to a similar state of indignation, but soon faces a much more severe test of his progressivism. When a labor group organizes a massive strike and the mining companies respond with punishing brutality, Hal's commitment to the cause of reform becomes a matter of life and death.
Download or read book King Coal written by Upton Sinclair and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book King Coal written by Upton Sinclair and published by Prabhat Prakashan. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: King Coal: A Novel 1917: Upton Sinclair's International Classic Bestseller Book by Upton Sinclair: Immerse yourself in the gritty world of the coal mining industry with King Coal by Upton Sinclair. Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century America, this powerful novel exposes the harsh realities and exploitation faced by miners. Through vivid storytelling and social commentary, Sinclair sheds light on the struggles of the working class, the corruption of corporate power, and the fight for labor rights. A timeless classic that remains relevant to this day. Key Aspects of the Book King Coal: Social Realism: Upton Sinclair's novel is renowned for its vivid depiction of the working-class experience. King Coal exposes the harsh working conditions, poverty, and injustices faced by coal miners during the early industrial era. Sinclair's writing captures the gritty realities of their lives, offering readers a glimpse into a world of struggle, resilience, and social inequality. Labor Rights and Social Justice: The book delves into the labor movement and the fight for workers' rights. Sinclair's protagonist navigates the challenges of organizing labor unions, confronting corrupt mine owners, and advocating for fair treatment and safer working conditions. King Coal raises important questions about social justice, economic disparity, and the power dynamics within society. Political and Social Commentary: Through his powerful narrative, Sinclair provides incisive social and political commentary. The novel explores themes of corporate greed, political corruption, and the impact of capitalism on the lives of the working class. Sinclair's critiques of the system and his call for social reform resonate with readers, prompting reflection on issues that persist in society today. Upton Sinclair was an American author and social reformer known for his investigative journalism and powerful novels that exposed social injustices. King Coal is one of his seminal works, highlighting the plight of coal miners and the systemic problems within the industrial landscape of early 20th-century America. Sinclair's activism and writings sparked public awareness and contributed to significant reforms in labor rights and working conditions. His legacy as a champion of social justice and political reform endures to this day.
Download or read book Appalachia s Coal Mined Landscapes written by Carl E. Zipper and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-11-25 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book collects and summarizes current scientific knowledge concerning coal-mined landscapes of the Appalachian region in eastern United States. Containing contributions from authors across disciplines, the book addresses topics relevant to the region’s coal-mining history and its future; its human communities; and the soils, waters, plants, wildlife, and human-use potentials of Appalachia’s coal-mined landscapes. The book provides a comprehensive overview of coal mining’s legacy in Appalachia, USA. It book describes the resources of the Appalachian coalfield, its lands and waters, and its human communities – as they have been left in the aftermath of intensive mining, drawing upon peer-reviewed science and other regional data to provide clear and objective descriptions. By understanding the Appalachian experience, officials and planners in other resource extraction- affected world regions can gain knowledge and perspectives that will aid their own efforts to plan and manage for environmental quality and for human welfare. Appalachia's Coal-Mined Landscapes: Resources and Communities in a New Energy Era will be of use to natural resource managers and scientists within Appalachia and in other world regions experiencing widespread mining, researchers with interest in the region’s disturbance legacy, and economic and community planners concerned with Appalachia’s future.
Download or read book Something s Rising written by Silas House and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2009-04-17 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like an old-fashioned hymn sung in rounds, Something's Rising gives a stirring voice to the lives, culture, and determination of the people fighting the destructive practice of mountaintop removal in the coalfields of central Appalachia. Each person's story, unique and unfiltered, articulates the hardship of living in these majestic mountains amid the daily desecration of the land by the coal industry because of America's insistence on cheap energy. Developed as an alternative to strip mining, mountaintop removal mining consists of blasting away the tops of mountains, dumping waste into the valleys, and retrieving the exposed coal. This process buries streams, pollutes wells and waterways, and alters fragile ecologies in the region. The people who live, work, and raise families in central Appalachia face not only the physical destruction of their land but also the loss of their culture and health in a society dominated by the consequences of mountaintop removal. Included here are oral histories from Jean Ritchie, "the mother of folk," who doesn't let her eighty-six years slow down her fighting spirit; Judy Bonds, a tough-talking coal-miner's daughter; Kathy Mattea, the beloved country singer who believes cooperation is the key to winning the battle; Jack Spadaro, the heroic whistle-blower who has risked everything to share his insider knowledge of federal mining agencies; Larry Bush, who doesn't back down even when speeding coal trucks are used to intimidate him; Denise Giardina, a celebrated writer who ran for governor to bring attention to the issue; and many more. The book features both well-known activists and people rarely in the media. Each oral history is prefaced with a biographical essay that vividly establishes the interview settings and the subjects' connections to their region. Written and edited by native sons of the mountains, this compelling book captures a fever-pitch moment in the movement against mountaintop removal. Silas House and Jason Howard are experts on the history of resistance in Appalachia, the legacy of exploitation of the region's natural resources, and area's unique culture and landscape. This lyrical and informative text provides a critical perspective on a powerful industry. The cumulative effect of these stories is stunning and powerful. Something's Rising will long stand as a testament to the social and ecological consequences of energy at any cost and will be especially welcomed by readers of Appalachian studies, environmental science, and by all who value the mountain's majesty—our national heritage.
