Reckoning at Eagle Creek
Subtitle: the secret legacy of coal in the heartland
By: Jeff Biggers
Publisher: Nation Books
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 300
ISBN-13: 9781568584218
Subjects: Coal mines and mining; Mountain life; History
Description: "Award-winning journalist and cultural historian Jeff Biggers takes us on a journey into the secret history of coal mining in the American heartland. Set in the ruins of his family's strip-mined homestead in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois, Biggers delivers a deeply personal portrait of the largely overlooked human and environmental costs of our nation's dirty energy policy." "Reckoning at Eagle Creek digs deep into the tangled roots of the coal industry beginning with the policies of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, chronicling the removal of Native Americans and the hidden story of legally sanctioned black slavery in the land of Lincoln. It uncovers a century of regulatory negligence, vividly describing the epic mining wars for union recognition and workplace safety, and the devastating consequences of industrial strip-mining."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: In coal blood; title: Mr. President, welcome to the Saudi Arabia of coal; title: 4.5 hours : the choices we made; title: In the name of the Shawnee : removing the Earth's liver; title: Black diamonds, black lives : the entangled roots of slavery and coal; title: Who killed the miners? : an anatomy of denial; title: Black waters, black waters : the murder of Little Egypt; title: The short swift time of clean coal on Earth : dirty coal has left the building.