The West Virginia Mine Wars

Learn more about the West Virginia Mine Wars, including the Battle of Blair Mountain, with these books, graphic novels, and DVDs!

Updated February 28, 2025
Jessamine County Public Library Books and Bites
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Matewan
Sayles, John
DVD
Independent filmmaker John Sayles creates one of his more artistic works with this period feature about a volatile 1920s labor dispute in the town of Matewan, West Virginia. Matewan is a coal town where the local miners' lives are controlled by the powerful Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company...
Black Coal and Red Bandanas: An Illustrated History of the West Virginia Mine Wars
Tyler, Raymond
Paper Book
Our illustrated history begins with Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones arrival at the turn of the century. White-haired, matronly, and fiercely socialist, Jones became known as the 'miners' angel,' and helped turn the fledgling United Mine Workers into the nation's most powerful labour union. 'Pray for the...
The devil is here in these hills : West Virginia's coal miners and their battle for freedom
Green, James R.
Ebook
"The most comprehensive and comprehendible history of the West Virginia Coal War I've ever read." --John Sayles, writer and director of Matewan   On September 1, 1912, the largest, most protracted, and deadliest working-class uprising in American history was waged...
Rednecks
Brown, Taylor
Ebook
Winner of the Southern Book Prize for Fiction An NPR Best Book of 2024 An Atlanta Journal-Constitution Best Southern Book of 2024 A historical drama based on the Battle of Blair Mountain, pitting a multi-ethnic army of 10,000 coal miners against mine...

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