Thunder on the Mountain: Death at Massey and the Dirty Secrets Behind Big Coal

Appalachia may be blessed with the “world’s best metallurgical coal,” but as journalist Galuzka’s powerful book shows, this coal is both “a curse and a prize.” According to Galuszka, the “coal barons” have deliberately thwarted the growth of a middle-class among miners in order to cement their social control. He initially focuses on the horrendous 2010 disaster at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine, in which 29 miners were killed. He convincingly excoriates the safety record of Massey Energy and its controversial former CEO, Don Blankenship. While Blankenship’s outspoken antagonism toward unions and regulators drew negative comment even in the coal industry, many executives were quietly sympathetic. This perception provides a springboard to the central dichotomy: the geographical and cultural isolation of the Appalachian people, perpetuated by inaccurate and condescending popular conceptions, has fostered a big-profit environment for Big Coal even as the region remains impoverished. Drawing on his personal experience of Appalachia, Galuszka offers a sympathetic but unsentimental portrait of the region’s people and their struggles. (Sept.)