Robert Shogan - The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of Americas Largest Labor Uprising

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Table of Contents

PRAISE FORTHE BATTLE OF BLAIR MOUNTAIN

From atop Blair Mountain, Robert Shogan has conjured a vivid vision of modern America in the making in the bloody coal field struggles of 1920s West Virginia. Infused with the humane intelligence of one of our most distinguished political correspondents, this haunting tale restores a shocking chapter of American history to its rightful place in this nations unfolding saga of democratic aspirations and shattered dreams. It is a rare gem of a book.

JOSEPH A. McCARTIN, Georgetown University, author of
Labors Great War

Robert Shogan sheds new light on this long-neglected episode of the labor movements ongoing struggle for workers rights. For too long, the significant Battle of Blair Mountain has been merely a footnote in American history books. Now, the real story of Americas largest labor uprisingand the largest armed insurrection on U.S. soil since the Civil Warcomes alive. As a native of Cabin Creek, W.Va.and the great-nephew of the miners commander, Bill BlizzardI take personal interest in reading about my unions pivotal role in this historic rebellion for economic and social justice.

CECIL ROBERTS, president, United Mine Workers of America

Bob Shogan has covered seven presidents and countless political campaigns. Now he tells the story of a forgotten chapter of American historyan armed uprising by 10,000 West Virginia coal miners against the coal companies that dominated their lives, exploited their labor, and controlled their state government. This book is a riveting refutation of the comforting conventional wisdom that there has never been class struggle in America.

DAVID KUSNET, chief speechwriter for former president
Bill Clinton (19921994), and author of Speaking American:
How the Democrats Can Win in the Nineties

Here is a book about forgotten events that took place 80 years ago in a little understood corner of our nation. What a surprise that Bob Shogan has not only found ample documentary evidence to convince us of the historical significance of these battles between miners and mine owners in southern WV, but also spun a rip roaring tale full of shockingly vivid and down-to-earth portraits. When the tale is told, Shogans conclusion seems irrefutable: our nation paid a heavy price in economic justice and social progress when state and federal authorities failed to ensure workers basic freedom to form unions.

RICHARD L. TRUMKA, Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO, and
Past President, United Mine Workers of America

shocking chapter of American history to its rightful place in this nations unfolding saga of democratic aspirations and shattered dreams. It is a rare gem of a book.

JOSEPH A. McCARTIN, Georgetown University,
author of Labors Great War

Robert Shogan sheds new light on this long-neglected episode of the labor movements ongoing struggle for workers rights. For too long, the significant Battle of Blair Mountain has been merely a footnote in American history books. Now, the real story of Americas largest labor uprisingand the largest armed insurrection on U.S. soil since the Civil Warcomes alive. As a native of Cabin Creek, W.Va.and the great-nephew of the miners commander, Bill BlizzardI take personal interest in reading about my unions pivotal role in this historic rebellion for economic and social justice.

CECIL ROBERTS, president, United Mine Workers of America

Bob Shogan has covered seven presidents and countless political campaigns. Now he tells the story of a forgotten chapter of American historyan armed uprising by 10,000 West Virginia coal miners against the coal companies that dominated their lives, exploited their labor, and controlled their state government. This book is a riveting refutation of the comforting conventional wisdom that there has never been class struggle in America.

DAVID KUSNET, chief speechwriter for former president
Bill Clinton (19921994), and author of Speaking American:
How the Democrats Can Win in the Nineties

Here is a book about forgotten events that took place 80 years ago in a little understood corner of our nation. What a surprise that Bob Shogan has not only found ample documentary evidence to convince us of the historical significance of these battles between miners and mine owners in southern WV, but also spun a rip roaring tale full of shockingly vivid and down-to-earth portraits. When the tale is told, Shogans conclusion seems irrefutable: our nation paid a heavy price in economic justice and social progress when state and federal authorities failed to ensure workers basic freedom to form unions.

RICHARD L. TRUMKA, Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO, and
Past President, United Mine Workers of America

OTHER WORKS BY ROBERT SHOGAN

War Without End
Cultural Conflict and the
Struggle for Americas Political Future

Bad News
Where the Press Goes
Wrong in the Making of the President

The Double-Edged Sword
How Character Makes and Ruins
Presidents From Washington to Clinton

Fate of the Union
Americas Rocky Road to Political Stalemate

Hard Bargain
How FDR Twisted Churchills Arm, Evaded the
Law and Changed the Role of the American Presidency

Riddle of Power
Presidential Leadership From Truman to Bush

None of the Above
Why Presidents Fail and What Can Be Done About It

Promises to Keep
Carters First 100 Days

A Question of Judgment
The Fortas Case and the Struggle for the Supreme Court

The Detroit Race Riot
A Study in Violence (With Tom Craig)

For Ellen

Authors Note

Labor, like Israel, has many sorrows, John L. Lewis observed during his reign as president of the United Mine Workers. Its women weep for their fallen and they lament for the future of the race. Among labors many costly defeats, the Battle of Blair Mountain arguably ranks as the most neglected.

When I first became interested in the Battle of Blair Mountain in the early 1960s, I thought it remarkable that so little had been written about this unprecedented episode in our development as a nation. The course of my professional life then took me in a different direction. When I returned to the subject, nearly four decades later, I found that more work had been done, all of it creditable. Yet the great uprising of the West Virginia miners remains only an afterthought in our historical consciousness, earning only a few sentences at most even in chronicles of the labor movement and no attention at all in more general accounts of the American heritage. This book is intended to help remedy this oversight. By looking into this dark corner of American history my hope is to cast light on the forces that shaped the American political and economic order in the 20th century and give the ordeal of the southern West Virginia miners its proper place in the story of our nation.

One reason for the continued obscurity of this episode up to now is our countrys dominant middle-class ethos. This frame of reference discourages attention to struggles to achieve social and economic justice, if they threaten the sanctity of property values and the maintenance of law and order. As a result the significance of class conflict in the making of America is overlooked and misunderstood.

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