Written In Blood: Courage and Corruption in the Appalachian War of Extraction

(Paperback)

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Description

Written in Blood features the work of Appalachia's leading scholars and activists making available an accurate, ungilded, and uncensored understanding of our history.

Reviews

"Written in Blood shines a critical light on the untold true history of the WV Mine Wars."
--Mari-Lynn Evans, director and producer of Blood on the Mountain

"With Written in Blood, Wess Harris has once again called attention to how the West Virginia state government and the coal industry have struggled to keep our state's real history buried beneath a slag heap of fairy tales and misinformation. His critics will find this book, like his other works, abrasive and filled with alleged distortions about the coal companies' abuse and exploitation of the state's coal miners and their families. His supporters will welcome Written in Blood as Harris once again pushes the boundaries in an effort to reveal that abuse and exploitation."
--David Corbin, author of Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners, 1880-1922

"For two hundred years, the coal industry has promised us prosperity. Written in Blood leaves little doubt that the prosperity never arrives. The promise itself is contingent on us agreeing to our own destruction. We must agree to stand idly by as they destroy our communities, water, air, health, and lives. We owe them nothing. They owe us everything."
--Maria Gunnoe, Goldman Environmental Prize winner and recipient of the University of Michigan Raoul Wallenberg Medal

"For more than a century, the real history of the working people of our state has been deliberately scrubbed from our children's schoolbooks and our collective knowledge. Written in Blood helps bring the true history of West Virginia working families back into the light of day. Read it. Learn it. Pass it on!"
--Mike Caputo, International District 31 vice president, United Mine Workers of America

"Labor historian Wess Harris targets lost history in a brand new book that provides jaw-dropping accounts of how women were treated by an industry already widely known for its ruthlessness and callousness."
--Counterpunch

Author Bio

Wess Harris is a sociologist, farmer, and educator who is widely recognized as an authority on West Virginia's Great Mine War. He curates the When Miners March Traveling Museum. Michael Kline has documented West Virginia folklife and music for decades. A frequent contributor to Goldenseal, where he was once assistant editor, Kline has also produced numerous audio documentaries for broadcast on WVPB, NPR, and BBC TV.