Reviews for To Save the Land and People A History of Opposition to Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia

The average rating for To Save the Land and People A History of Opposition to Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-07-02 00:00:00 Dan Wales Just under half of the U.S. energy grid is still powered by coal, popularly understood to be the fuel of the 19th century. In the dominant oil crisis rhetoric the biggest problems with fossil fuel resources are a) their limited supply and b) the pollution from burning them. The extraction process doesn't get much attention. But as Montrie's book shows, mining coal in Appalachia has always been intensely destructive, of local ecology, community, and human life, and there have always been people dedicated to fighting it. Montrie's focus is organized opposition to surface mining, the increasingly common extraction method that involves using explosives instead of underground tunnels to get at coal seams. At its worst it can literally take the top off of a mountain -- "mountaintop removal mining." You can read about its effects on fragile, ancient ecosystems and surrounding communities here. The stereotypical image of the 1970s environmental movement is a bunch of privileged suburbanites sitting in trees and refusing to shower. Even without 'deep ecology' (the idea that nature should have ethical priority over humans), environmentalism in both the Rachel Carson and Sierra Club varieties has at times been hard pressed to get along with other left movements, especially labor. So one of the really valuable things To Save the Land and People does is provide a case study of a situation where a very different kind of environmentalism grew out of the working class, well before the middle class green movements. Where those tend to be based on ethical and/or aesthetic concerns, opponents of surface mining were motivated by the threats to their private property, recreational pastimes (hunting, fishing, etc.), jobs (surface mining requires fewer workers), and health. That might sound less radical ideologically, but in terms of action everything from picketing to destruction of mining equipment was employed by activists to defend themselves and their land. The problems with the book have to do with style -- Montrie avoids jargon but is still very dry and the narrative tends to get bogged down with detail. He has another book, Making a Living, that takes a wider scope (with essays on Detroit autoworkers, textile mill girls, and others) to understand labor environmentalism as a national phenomenon. There's a section online here. Only read bits of it so far, but it's also good (and better written).

Review # 2 was written on 2013-11-09 00:00:00 Richard Peralta Second read - A comprehensive look at the Tour de France over the years by an excellent author who seems to have swallowed a dictionary. I certainly needed one by my side when reading this book and I thank him for extensively extending my vocabulary. I like the fact that he links in his own cycling exploits on the TDF roads to the exploits of the riders on these same roads. The detail and research needed must have been phenomenal so chapeau for that. In the end I found finishing the book hard work but my interest kept me reading. It’s a well written book but you have to be deeply interested in the TDF to finish it. First Read - It a long read but enjoyable and very detailed. The first part was historical and mixed up with the authors own cycling journeys, later, it settled down to a year by year description of the race. The authors very literary background meant I had to keep a dictionary handy and, in the course, of reading I learned quite a few new words. The finish is a bit disappointing; I felt he should have talked about the future of the race vis a vis cheating and drug taking, instead we got a eulogy about how glorious the race is, an approach that is hard to understand in view of the sordid events of the last 20 years (or more). I have always said that the mixture of an amazing race, history, cheating, and drugs played out in the magnificent backdrop of France, especially in the mountains, gives us cycling anoraks something to talk about. La Gloire…maybe. Le Doping…..for sure.