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
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
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...
The devil is here in these hills West virginia's coal miners and their battle for freedom
Green, James.
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...
The mine wars
MacLowry, Randall
DVD
This history documentary takes a look at the coalmines across America at the turn of the 20th century, analyzing the human rights violations that occurred at the cost of the coal boom. ~ Daniel Gelb, Rovi
Rednecks
Brown, Taylor
Paper Book
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...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.