The Mine Wars: The Bloody Fight for Workers' Rights in the West Virginia Coal Fields by Steve Watkins (review)

Reviewed by: The Mine Wars: The Bloody Fight for Workers' Rights in the West Virginia Coal Fields by Steve Watkins April Spisak Watkins, Steve The Mine Wars: The Bloody Fight for Workers' Rights in the West Virginia Coal Fields. Bloomsbury, 2024 [272p] illus. by photographs Trade ed. ISBN 9781547612185 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781547612192 $13.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 9-12 The coal miners of West Virginia in 1920 and 1921 had moderate requests: safer conditions, higher pay that was in cash instead of company store scrip, and more humane treatment. Even those were far too egregious for the owners, however, and brutal attempts to stop unionization led to a desperate uprising after all other efforts had been thwarted via firing anyone who had signed any union paperwork, as well as threats, bribery, bringing in strikebreakers, and violence. Watkins builds significant tension in the story, emphasizing the increasing exhaustion of the mine workers in truly awful work scenarios, introducing key union organizers and representatives, and identifying mine owners and spies that would be important figures in the eventual uprising, the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain. Stark, unforgettable photographs are interspersed through the book, including work areas just a few feet tall and propped up by an alarmingly small number of wood posts, groups of young children, who are covered in coal dust, coming out from work, and Eleanor Roosevelt, years after the events of this book, riding through an ostentatiously clean mine. Readers will likely never have heard of this piece of union history—the telling of it for a teen audience is long overdue, and it is unfortunate that it remains sharply relevant today. End matter includes sources and photo credits.