SIXTEEN TONS BOOK REVIEWS
Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President
Sixteen Tons a novel about immigrant workers set in America a century ago. It is an important story that comes to us at a critical time. Kevin has written a book that is full of historical insights. Although it is a work of fiction it is artfully grounded in thorough research including interviews with and recollections of people who lived through the events in the book.
It is great to see this material in a novel because Kevin’s words bring to light the dreams and aspirations of the men, women and children who lived our labor history. They traveled across oceans of water and over expanses of land. They dug and blasted deep into the earth. They endured cave-ins and hard manual labor, sometimes in coal mines only three-feet high. In fact, the descriptions of the mine work itself is fascinating because it is written so anyone today can get an understanding of the miner’s work day back then. It wasn’t easy but it was work for people who needed it.
Kevin’s book covers another important and too often overlooked aspect. The unionism and extreme backlash against any and every form of solidarity. This is part of American history that needs to be remembered.
A lot of this is heartbreaking and should break hearts. Company gunmen hounded and killed men, women and children for no crime other than trying to earn a living. Yet there were far more crimes perhaps less dramatic in scope but just as devastating. I’m thinking of the casual story in the novel as related by a shift boss about a man whose long legs were caught in a roof fall. One leg was cut off above the knee. After the amputation the boss joked, “The miner is now better in the lower tunnels.”
I’m proud the AFL-CIO is hosting a discussion of this novel and I’m glad it is part of the AFL-CIO book series. I hope the novel reaches a broad audience.
Facebook Review - Amy Jo
Finished your book Kevin Corley, and what an awesome story! I know, as you said the characters were fictional, but I feel only fictional in names. It made me cry several times and I cried when ******** got killed. It was really hard to put down and stop reading when I had to. You made the people and their stories come alive!! I feel truth in what you wrote in the stories of their lives. The devastation and pain was real. The sadness was real. The violence was real. I could feel their struggles, and pain, to the very depths of my soul. They became my neighbors, and personal friends, I could feel their hope, and also their hopelessness as I read. Thank you for such a caring, loving, soul-searching story!! Recommended reading! To anyone who has yet to read this book!! "SIXTEEN TONS"!! You'll love it!!
John Ramsey - Decatur, Illinois
I just finished reading Kevin Corley’s novel, “Sixteen Tons”, a story about the roots of the coal mining unions in the early 20th century. It’s an excellently written book. The characters come alive as Corley relates incidents that occurred in the lives of coal miners in central Illinois during the struggles for mine safety and miners’ rights. The miners gave their all to provide a living for their families, and that often included their own lives. I highly recommend this book to all history students who want to gain a perspective of the struggles for human rights in the coal mining communities of central Illinois.
Reviewed by: Bruce Nissen, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA
Sixteen Tons is a historical novel about U.S. coal miners in the first half of the twentieth century and the “miners’ wars” between workers determined to have a union and the various company thugs, police, crooked politicians, and national guardsmen they faced. It follows the fate of Antonio and Angeline Vacca, a family of Italian immigrants, as the century unfolds. The story focuses on coal miners in Illinois, but some of the characters move around the country to other mining areas, so we get to witness the great coal mine wars in Matewan, West Virginia, and the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado as well.
This novel is remarkably well written. The historical sweep of the narrative is impressive, and the author manages to weave credible and fascinating personal stories of the characters’ lives into the history so that the reader feels as if he or she were actually there. Tragedies from mine cave-ins, romances, intense friendships, divisions (even within a family) between “company men” and “union men,” and racial and ethnic animosities all animate this story beautifully.
Hard-knuckled class struggle is evident throughout. Although the bulk of violence is against the miners, they do not hesitate to pick up arms to defend themselves, their communities, and their means of livelihood. Family patriarch Antonio Vacca becomes a union leader, while his best friend Joe Harrison becomes a company man, rising through the ranks to become director of the local mine. A wealthy local resident with socialist views becomes friends of both men, further complicating and enriching the class dynamics of a story that always remains true to a realistic depiction of every character’s flaws as well as his or her admirable qualities. The feisty Irishwoman, “Mother Jones,” makes her appearance at times of intense conflict; her unflinching courage and dedication to the miner’s cause is well depicted. She wasn’t called the “Mineworker’s Angel” for nothing.
The novel even manages to include what is perhaps the biggest blemish on the historical record of organized labor regarding brutish violence: the 1922 Herrin, Illinois, massacre, where dozens of company men and their armed accomplices were murdered in cold blood after surrendering in a battle. The carnage from Herrin can’t rival that of the infamous Ludlow Massacre in Colorado some years earlier, where women and children were mass murdered by Rockefeller-paid national guardsmen. But it was a totally indefensible crime of blood lust; never before or since have union forces been guilty of a crime of equally enormous magnitude. In the novel, the leader of that massacre is shown to be a petty gangster who later switches sides and becomes a leader of company goons trying to provoke union violence in later strikes.
The bulk of the novel, however, concerns the everyday lives and concerns of coal miners and their families. The Vacca family suffers multiple tragedies; accidents and illnesses and violence take many lives before the novel’s end. While most miners and their families are treated sympathetically, none are flattened out into cardboard characters without flaws. All in all, this book is a fine work of art.
The book should be of interest to anyone who likes a good historical novel. It should also appeal to anyone who has an interest in twentieth-century coal mining history. I highly recommend it and hope it finds a wide audience of general readers. University-based labor educators could adopt it for use as an auxiliary text in a U.S. labor history course or in any course on fiction concerning workers and/or the U.S. labor movement. The affordable price of only $15 is an extra bonus. May it find a wide readership!
Sixteen Tons a novel about immigrant workers set in America a century ago. It is an important story that comes to us at a critical time. Kevin has written a book that is full of historical insights. Although it is a work of fiction it is artfully grounded in thorough research including interviews with and recollections of people who lived through the events in the book.
It is great to see this material in a novel because Kevin’s words bring to light the dreams and aspirations of the men, women and children who lived our labor history. They traveled across oceans of water and over expanses of land. They dug and blasted deep into the earth. They endured cave-ins and hard manual labor, sometimes in coal mines only three-feet high. In fact, the descriptions of the mine work itself is fascinating because it is written so anyone today can get an understanding of the miner’s work day back then. It wasn’t easy but it was work for people who needed it.
Kevin’s book covers another important and too often overlooked aspect. The unionism and extreme backlash against any and every form of solidarity. This is part of American history that needs to be remembered.
A lot of this is heartbreaking and should break hearts. Company gunmen hounded and killed men, women and children for no crime other than trying to earn a living. Yet there were far more crimes perhaps less dramatic in scope but just as devastating. I’m thinking of the casual story in the novel as related by a shift boss about a man whose long legs were caught in a roof fall. One leg was cut off above the knee. After the amputation the boss joked, “The miner is now better in the lower tunnels.”
I’m proud the AFL-CIO is hosting a discussion of this novel and I’m glad it is part of the AFL-CIO book series. I hope the novel reaches a broad audience.
Facebook Review - Amy Jo
Finished your book Kevin Corley, and what an awesome story! I know, as you said the characters were fictional, but I feel only fictional in names. It made me cry several times and I cried when ******** got killed. It was really hard to put down and stop reading when I had to. You made the people and their stories come alive!! I feel truth in what you wrote in the stories of their lives. The devastation and pain was real. The sadness was real. The violence was real. I could feel their struggles, and pain, to the very depths of my soul. They became my neighbors, and personal friends, I could feel their hope, and also their hopelessness as I read. Thank you for such a caring, loving, soul-searching story!! Recommended reading! To anyone who has yet to read this book!! "SIXTEEN TONS"!! You'll love it!!
John Ramsey - Decatur, Illinois
I just finished reading Kevin Corley’s novel, “Sixteen Tons”, a story about the roots of the coal mining unions in the early 20th century. It’s an excellently written book. The characters come alive as Corley relates incidents that occurred in the lives of coal miners in central Illinois during the struggles for mine safety and miners’ rights. The miners gave their all to provide a living for their families, and that often included their own lives. I highly recommend this book to all history students who want to gain a perspective of the struggles for human rights in the coal mining communities of central Illinois.
Reviewed by: Bruce Nissen, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA
Sixteen Tons is a historical novel about U.S. coal miners in the first half of the twentieth century and the “miners’ wars” between workers determined to have a union and the various company thugs, police, crooked politicians, and national guardsmen they faced. It follows the fate of Antonio and Angeline Vacca, a family of Italian immigrants, as the century unfolds. The story focuses on coal miners in Illinois, but some of the characters move around the country to other mining areas, so we get to witness the great coal mine wars in Matewan, West Virginia, and the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado as well.
This novel is remarkably well written. The historical sweep of the narrative is impressive, and the author manages to weave credible and fascinating personal stories of the characters’ lives into the history so that the reader feels as if he or she were actually there. Tragedies from mine cave-ins, romances, intense friendships, divisions (even within a family) between “company men” and “union men,” and racial and ethnic animosities all animate this story beautifully.
Hard-knuckled class struggle is evident throughout. Although the bulk of violence is against the miners, they do not hesitate to pick up arms to defend themselves, their communities, and their means of livelihood. Family patriarch Antonio Vacca becomes a union leader, while his best friend Joe Harrison becomes a company man, rising through the ranks to become director of the local mine. A wealthy local resident with socialist views becomes friends of both men, further complicating and enriching the class dynamics of a story that always remains true to a realistic depiction of every character’s flaws as well as his or her admirable qualities. The feisty Irishwoman, “Mother Jones,” makes her appearance at times of intense conflict; her unflinching courage and dedication to the miner’s cause is well depicted. She wasn’t called the “Mineworker’s Angel” for nothing.
The novel even manages to include what is perhaps the biggest blemish on the historical record of organized labor regarding brutish violence: the 1922 Herrin, Illinois, massacre, where dozens of company men and their armed accomplices were murdered in cold blood after surrendering in a battle. The carnage from Herrin can’t rival that of the infamous Ludlow Massacre in Colorado some years earlier, where women and children were mass murdered by Rockefeller-paid national guardsmen. But it was a totally indefensible crime of blood lust; never before or since have union forces been guilty of a crime of equally enormous magnitude. In the novel, the leader of that massacre is shown to be a petty gangster who later switches sides and becomes a leader of company goons trying to provoke union violence in later strikes.
The bulk of the novel, however, concerns the everyday lives and concerns of coal miners and their families. The Vacca family suffers multiple tragedies; accidents and illnesses and violence take many lives before the novel’s end. While most miners and their families are treated sympathetically, none are flattened out into cardboard characters without flaws. All in all, this book is a fine work of art.
The book should be of interest to anyone who likes a good historical novel. It should also appeal to anyone who has an interest in twentieth-century coal mining history. I highly recommend it and hope it finds a wide audience of general readers. University-based labor educators could adopt it for use as an auxiliary text in a U.S. labor history course or in any course on fiction concerning workers and/or the U.S. labor movement. The affordable price of only $15 is an extra bonus. May it find a wide readership!
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Taylor Pensoneau: Author of Brothers Notorious: The Sheltons and Former President of Illinois Coal Association
Kevin Corley's considerable talents as a historian and storyteller are on full display in Sixteen Tons. Although a novel, the book dramatically captures the real life violence and hardships confronting families in the Illinois coalfields during much of the twentieth century. This is a darn good read from an author who--through painstaking interviews with miners and others--obviously knows of what he writes. |
Helena H. Wothen: Author of
What did you learn at work today? This novel paints an unforgettable picture of a period of US labor history that most people don't know about -- coal mining in Illinois towns like Virden, Herrin, Cherry; places where horrifying accidents and enormously dramatic -- and violent -- battles took place. The span of time covered is about 1898 to 1933, so the story includes waves of immigration, the 1918 flu epidemic, the Klu Klux Klan, Prohibition and gangsters. Written by someone who really understood mining, you get to go down into the mine -- not just into the relatively decent mines in Illinois but also the 3-foot high mines in Kentucky and West Virginia. |
David Markwell - Assistant Professor of History Nashville State Community College
Sixteen Tons, is an important and enjoyable work of fiction grounded in firm historical context. Strong female characters add to the work as does Corley’s handling of immigration and race in this era. The novel is at its best when describing work, culture, leisure and ‘everyday’ life of those involved in the close knit enclaves that made up Illinois mining communities. The writing is fresh and engaging as the saga unfolds. Sixteen Tons serves as an entertaining work of fiction while also providing a better understanding of these times. The novel is a unique and welcome addition to the literature on the subject of Illinois coal mining communities and American working class history. Corley’s work deserves wide readership. |
Illinois Times (page 17)
Thursday, May 29, 2014
By Stuart Shiffman
These are perilous times for the working men and women of America. Recent elections have swept conservative political leaders into power in state governments across the nation and those elected officials have set their sights on the wages and benefits of workers in the public and private sectors. Fueled by multimillion-dollar political contributions from billionaire industrialists, the war is being waged on a battlefield tilted against workers. In those states controlled by conservative legislatures, laws enacted involving unemployment insurance, minimum wage, child labor and collective bargaining all share one trait. They favor employers over workers, big government over local government and destroying the economic rights of individuals.
Of course this war is not new in America. The struggle has been ongoing since our nation was founded. History teaches us that sad fact. Kevin Corley is not a famous historian and he does not have a degree from a fancy university, but he has reminded us of this struggle in a compelling historical novel, Sixteen Tons, that serves as a sobering reminder of the struggle for workers’ rights in America. It will never make the New York Times best-seller list or be made into a movie with a cast of Hollywood stars, but it is nonetheless a book that should be read and enjoyed by a large audience, especially residents of central Illinois who wish to learn more about the history and impact of the coal mining industry on this part of our state.
Corley taught history in Taylorville schools for seven years. During his career he taught the history of the coal mine wars to many students whose ancestors struggled in those battles for workers rights. The oral histories he helped created with many of those miners and research material from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum are the source material for his novel, primarily set in central Illinois in the early 1900s. While the novel is fiction, Corley has re-created history by often using the actual words of real-life individuals spoken as dialogue by the fictional characters he created. And some of the characters in his novel, labor organizer Mother Jones, for example, are real-life people. In a poignant scene in the novel, Corley quotes an actual speech of Mother Jones: “I learned in the early part of my career that labor must bear the cross for others’ sins, must be the vicarious sufferer for the wrongs others do.”
Sixteen Tons tells the story of the family of Antonio Vacca, an Italian immigrant who journeys to central Illinois to toil in the coal mines at Virden. The title of the novel refers to the quota that miners were required to dig on a daily basis, six days a week. Life in the mines is dark, dirty and dangerous. Corley’s vivid description of a mine disaster and the subsequent rescue efforts reminds readers that miners’ lives were in constant danger. We are reminded of this fact again by recent news reports of mining deaths in West Virginia, in a mine where OSHA cited owners for hundreds of safety violations and miners were powerless to bring the mine into compliance with the law.
But there is difficulty above ground as well as below. Owners controlled the lives of the miners to a degree that few would tolerate. In addition to the working conditions, they controlled where the miners lived, where they bought their food and almost every aspect of the miners’ lives. When the miners attempted to organize in order to improve their plight, employers hired thugs and bribed politicians to destroy the union movement. Corley’s depiction is both depressing and uplifting as he portrays the working man and his family unwilling to accept defeat in the struggle for decent working conditions. He describes the efforts by union organizers across America in a battle for human dignity. Reading Sixteen Tons allows readers to better understand the historical context of the ongoing struggle for workers’ rights in America. For those who maintain that unions have become too powerful, Corley’s novel serves as a reminder that unions remain a crucial bulwark against the oppression of countless American workers.
In mid-June, Kevin Corley will travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with the presidents of the United Mine Workers and the AFL-CIO. He will be recognized for Sixteen Tons, a book serving as an important reminder for those who have forgotten the sacrifices made by many to improve the plight of workers in our great nation.
Stuart Shiffman served for 22 years as a judge in Illinois. He is currently of counsel to Feldman-Wasser in Springfield and serves as an adjunct professor in the Political Science and Legal Studies Department at Illinois State University.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
By Stuart Shiffman
These are perilous times for the working men and women of America. Recent elections have swept conservative political leaders into power in state governments across the nation and those elected officials have set their sights on the wages and benefits of workers in the public and private sectors. Fueled by multimillion-dollar political contributions from billionaire industrialists, the war is being waged on a battlefield tilted against workers. In those states controlled by conservative legislatures, laws enacted involving unemployment insurance, minimum wage, child labor and collective bargaining all share one trait. They favor employers over workers, big government over local government and destroying the economic rights of individuals.
Of course this war is not new in America. The struggle has been ongoing since our nation was founded. History teaches us that sad fact. Kevin Corley is not a famous historian and he does not have a degree from a fancy university, but he has reminded us of this struggle in a compelling historical novel, Sixteen Tons, that serves as a sobering reminder of the struggle for workers’ rights in America. It will never make the New York Times best-seller list or be made into a movie with a cast of Hollywood stars, but it is nonetheless a book that should be read and enjoyed by a large audience, especially residents of central Illinois who wish to learn more about the history and impact of the coal mining industry on this part of our state.
Corley taught history in Taylorville schools for seven years. During his career he taught the history of the coal mine wars to many students whose ancestors struggled in those battles for workers rights. The oral histories he helped created with many of those miners and research material from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum are the source material for his novel, primarily set in central Illinois in the early 1900s. While the novel is fiction, Corley has re-created history by often using the actual words of real-life individuals spoken as dialogue by the fictional characters he created. And some of the characters in his novel, labor organizer Mother Jones, for example, are real-life people. In a poignant scene in the novel, Corley quotes an actual speech of Mother Jones: “I learned in the early part of my career that labor must bear the cross for others’ sins, must be the vicarious sufferer for the wrongs others do.”
Sixteen Tons tells the story of the family of Antonio Vacca, an Italian immigrant who journeys to central Illinois to toil in the coal mines at Virden. The title of the novel refers to the quota that miners were required to dig on a daily basis, six days a week. Life in the mines is dark, dirty and dangerous. Corley’s vivid description of a mine disaster and the subsequent rescue efforts reminds readers that miners’ lives were in constant danger. We are reminded of this fact again by recent news reports of mining deaths in West Virginia, in a mine where OSHA cited owners for hundreds of safety violations and miners were powerless to bring the mine into compliance with the law.
But there is difficulty above ground as well as below. Owners controlled the lives of the miners to a degree that few would tolerate. In addition to the working conditions, they controlled where the miners lived, where they bought their food and almost every aspect of the miners’ lives. When the miners attempted to organize in order to improve their plight, employers hired thugs and bribed politicians to destroy the union movement. Corley’s depiction is both depressing and uplifting as he portrays the working man and his family unwilling to accept defeat in the struggle for decent working conditions. He describes the efforts by union organizers across America in a battle for human dignity. Reading Sixteen Tons allows readers to better understand the historical context of the ongoing struggle for workers’ rights in America. For those who maintain that unions have become too powerful, Corley’s novel serves as a reminder that unions remain a crucial bulwark against the oppression of countless American workers.
In mid-June, Kevin Corley will travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with the presidents of the United Mine Workers and the AFL-CIO. He will be recognized for Sixteen Tons, a book serving as an important reminder for those who have forgotten the sacrifices made by many to improve the plight of workers in our great nation.
Stuart Shiffman served for 22 years as a judge in Illinois. He is currently of counsel to Feldman-Wasser in Springfield and serves as an adjunct professor in the Political Science and Legal Studies Department at Illinois State University.
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Kevin L. Shrake: the President and Founder of Proton Productions, LLC
Sixteen tons is a novel about the tumultuous times of the coal mining industry in the early 1900s. The captivating pull of the book is that it depicts engaging stories about people. I enjoyed the descriptions and imagery, although sometimes graphic and gruesome. There were times that situations brought a "little mist to my eyes". I related to the book as a man, an employer of people, a husband, a provider, a father and a friend. It was the emotional connection of those roles to the characters in the book that made this a fascinating read. I would encourage anyone who cares about people and can relate to the challenges of raising a family, finding love and developing powerful friendships to not overlook this book. Perhaps you will be as pleasantly surprised as I was. John Ramsey - Decatur, Illinois
I just finished reading Kevin Corley’s novel, “Sixteen Tons”, a story about the roots of the coal mining unions in the early 20th century. It’s an excellently written book. The characters come alive as Corley relates incidents that occurred in the lives of coal miners in central Illinois during the struggles for mine safety and miners’ rights. The miners gave their all to provide a living for their families, and that often included their own lives. I highly recommend this book to all history students who want to gain a perspective of the struggles for human rights in the coal mining communities of central Illinois.
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Carol Alexander: Award Winning Journalist and Author of The Big Squeal
Over the years, numerous books have been written to chronicle the union wars and mine disasters. It’s the powerful, chill inducing voices that set “Sixteen Tons” apart. Throughout, author Kevin Corley serves as an oracle, raising a bullhorn on behalf of the courageous, death-defying miners whose excruciating labors in the dark bowels of the earth will induce gasps in readers. Spoiler alert: More blood flows here than in a vampire movie D.S. - An anonymous book review that appeared on Amazon May 13, 2014
Based on history gleaned from many first-hand accounts, Corley's historical novel brought my grandmother's childhood vividly to life! A child of a French immigrant miner from Langleyville, she told me of curfews enforced by armed gunmen and her father's refusal to go in off the porch or to give up his gun, a story corroborated by Corley's research. The novel follows the main characters from the late 1890s Pana and Virden strikes through the daily struggles of immigrants and poverty to the Christian County Coal Wars, Prohibition, the influence of organized crime, the Klan, and many other historical events. It would be of interest to anyone curious about Illinois history, but it also gives a powerfully moving account of mine strikes in West Virginia and Colorado that the reader won't soon forget. I was less familiar with these events, especially the way that women and children were purposefully burned alive in their tents. Other surprises include the bank robberies, racial prejudice, and the influence of Mother Jones. This is a history quickly being lost, as those who experienced it first hand are almost all gone now. But this is much more than a history book. It is a full-fledged novel. The characters are so compelling, and the action is so intriguing, that the book is hard to put down. I read it over the course of 2 days, and it has stuck with me for a long time after. You will want to know who survives mine disasters and the 1918 flu. |
Sixteen Tons captures Illinois coal fields life
Reviewed by Mike Matejka
Bloomington and Normal Trades and Labor Assembly
http://www.bntrades.org/news.php?id=371
Coal miners were once referred to as the “shock troops of labor,” hardened union members who were often shot at and not afraid to shoot back.
Coal was the fuel of 19th and early 20th century economic expansion. The work was dangerous and poorly paid. Coal miners, often in isolated rural communities, fought hard to build a strong union. There are battle grounds and disasters that still echo today -- Virden, Cherry, Ludlow, Matewan, Herrin and numerous others.
Central and southern Illinois was a critical building block to the United Mine Workers’ success.
Drawing all these stories together yet still making them vivid and real is a challenge for any writers. Retired Christian County high school teacher Kevin Corley has successfully done that in his new novel, Sixteen Tons.
Historical figures like Mother Jones and Matewan’s Sheriff Sid Hatfield appear, but Corley has woven together a diverse cast of characters -- Italian immigrants, West Virginia miners, African-Americans and native born. Together they do what families do -- mature, get married and raise families.
Coal field hard realities continually interrupt their lives. There are mine disasters and grieving widows. There is World War I and the mass flu epidemic that followed. There are miners from central Illinois volunteering to help other miners, bringing them to Colorado, Kentucky and West Virginia to aid strikers.
Finally, the Illinois coal fields erupts in a war -- not between the miners and the coal companies, but miner against miner, as union members dissatisfied with their national organization start their own union.
High stakes battles could easily overshadow character in a novel this far-ranging. Corley effectively creates individuals who are not cardboard cut-outs, but real workers with varied viewpoints. The women are just as vivid, showing families debating their risks and next move.
As a teacher, Corley soaked up stories of the Illinois coal fields, translating them into a readable novel of a recent past that should not be forgotten.
Reviewed by Mike Matejka
Bloomington and Normal Trades and Labor Assembly
http://www.bntrades.org/news.php?id=371
Coal miners were once referred to as the “shock troops of labor,” hardened union members who were often shot at and not afraid to shoot back.
Coal was the fuel of 19th and early 20th century economic expansion. The work was dangerous and poorly paid. Coal miners, often in isolated rural communities, fought hard to build a strong union. There are battle grounds and disasters that still echo today -- Virden, Cherry, Ludlow, Matewan, Herrin and numerous others.
Central and southern Illinois was a critical building block to the United Mine Workers’ success.
Drawing all these stories together yet still making them vivid and real is a challenge for any writers. Retired Christian County high school teacher Kevin Corley has successfully done that in his new novel, Sixteen Tons.
Historical figures like Mother Jones and Matewan’s Sheriff Sid Hatfield appear, but Corley has woven together a diverse cast of characters -- Italian immigrants, West Virginia miners, African-Americans and native born. Together they do what families do -- mature, get married and raise families.
Coal field hard realities continually interrupt their lives. There are mine disasters and grieving widows. There is World War I and the mass flu epidemic that followed. There are miners from central Illinois volunteering to help other miners, bringing them to Colorado, Kentucky and West Virginia to aid strikers.
Finally, the Illinois coal fields erupts in a war -- not between the miners and the coal companies, but miner against miner, as union members dissatisfied with their national organization start their own union.
High stakes battles could easily overshadow character in a novel this far-ranging. Corley effectively creates individuals who are not cardboard cut-outs, but real workers with varied viewpoints. The women are just as vivid, showing families debating their risks and next move.
As a teacher, Corley soaked up stories of the Illinois coal fields, translating them into a readable novel of a recent past that should not be forgotten.