The Road to Blair Mountain: Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal

"This book connects to work on twentieth-century labor history, but it is more than that. It is an insider's thoughts on regional identity and activism as well as a reassessment of how people see Appalachia in the popular mind. When Charles Keeney speaks directly to the reader and offers advice, it resonates in a powerful and present way."
Steven E. Nash, East Tennessee State University
 

"Keeney brings a lifetime of scholarship, family relations, and activism to this twenty-first-century chapter of the epic and ongoing saga of Blair Mountain."
​​​​​​​Catherine Venable Moore, president, West Virginia Mine Wars Museum

"Chuck Keeney takes over where his great-grandfather left off a century ago-in a no-holds-barred fight against King Coal and its pursuit of profits over people. Keeney delivers a riveting and propulsive story about a nine-year battle to save sacred ground that was the site of the largest labor uprising in American history. You'll find yourself rooting for Keeney from beginning to end. He unveils a powerful playbook on successful activism that will inspire countless others for generations to come."
Eric Eyre, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic

 

"Fascinating. . . . Suspenseful to the very end."
Daily Yonder

"In total, The Road to Blair Mountain articulates a thoughtful alternative vision for Appalachia's future-one that supports its heritage of coal mining and labor history and also seeks a more sustainable, diverse, and decentralized economy."
Foreword Reviews