The scapegoat
By: by Mary Lee Settle ; with a new introduction by the author.
Edition: University of South Carolina Press ed.
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Columbia, S.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 278
Subjects: Strikes and lockouts -- Fiction.; Coal mines and mining -- Fiction.; Coal miners -- Fiction.; West Virginia -- Fiction.
Description: In a novel about casual and heedless acts that often lead to unthinkable results, Mary Lee Settle traces the fall of a West Virginia town that was first made rich by coal, then corrupted and destroyed by it.

Set in 1912, this fourth volume of The Beulah Quintet - Settle's unforgettable generational saga about the roots of American culture, class, and identity and the meaning of freedom - propels readers with astonishing immediacy to a fateful day in a coal miners' strike in which relatives of the Beulah dynasty, only dimly aware of their blood ties, confront one another on opposing sides of the dispute.

Emotions escalate to a frenzy of violence as Mother Jones, leader of the striking miners, calls for action in a community devastated by Southern resignation and by guilt associated with selling out to Eastern investors.