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...
The mine wars : the bloody fight for workers' rights in the West Virginia coalfields
Watkins, Steve
Paper Book
For fans of Steve Sheinkin and Deb Heiligman, a riveting true story of the West Virginia coal miners who ignited the largest labor uprising in American history. * "An essential historical account of the U.S. labor movement." --School Library Journal, starred review
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
An NPR Best Book of 2024 An Atlanta Journal-Constitution Best Southern Book of 2024 Southern Book Prize Fiction Finalist A historical drama based on the Battle of Blair Mountain, pitting a multi-ethnic army of 10,000 coal miners against mine owners...

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