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Usually ships in 1 business days | | Only 5 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | One of America's most dramatic environmental battles is unfolding in southern West Virginia. Coal companies are blasting the mountains, decapitating them for coal. The forested ridge tops and valley streams of Appalachia--one of the country's natural treasures--are being destroyed, along with towns and communities. An entire culture is disappearing, and to this day, most Americans have no idea it's happening. Michael Shnayerson first traveled to the coal fields four years ago, on assignment for Vanity Fair. There he met an inspiring young lawyer named Joe Lovett, who was fighting mountaintop removal in court with a series of brilliant and daring lawsuits. He also met Judy Bonds, whose grassroots group, the Coal River Mountain Watch, was speaking out in a region where talking truth to power was both brave and dangerous. The two had joined forces to take on Massey Energy, the largest and most aggressive of the coal companies, and its swaggering, notorious chairman, Don Blankenship. Coal River is Shnayerson's account of this dramatic struggle. From courtroom to boardroom, forest clearing to factory floor, Shnayerson gives us a novelistic and compelling portrait of the people who risked their reputations and livelihoods in the fight against King Coal.
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Michael Shnayerson | | Hardcover: | 336 pages | | Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | | Publication Date: | January 08, 2008 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0374125147 | | Product Length: | 9.22 inches | | Product Width: | 6.25 inches | | Product Height: | 1.16 inches | | Product Weight: | 1.3 pounds | | Package Length: | 9.1 inches | | Package Width: | 6.2 inches | | Package Height: | 1.2 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.8 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 23 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 23 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 How West Virginia is Being Destroyed in the Name of Greed and the Fight to Stop It Jan 22, 2008
By Frederick S. Goethel
"wildcatcreekbooks"
Coal River is the story of the practice of mountaintop removal mining in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia and of the people who tried to stop the practice. It also examines Don Blankenship, CEO and Chairman of Massey Energy who is considered by all involved to be the one person responsible for the most destruction.
For those not familiar with the technique, mountaintop removal mining involves literally blasting several hundred feet or more from the top of a mountain so that the coal can be extracted much more easily. The spoils of the removal are dumped over the edge of the mountain into streams that tend to run along the valley floor. That causes pollution and, in many cases, the entire closing of the stream which changes the entire hydrology of the area.
In theory, the mountains are supposed to be replaced to a near natural form at the end of mining, but that rarely happens, leaving a moonscape of rock and debris that will take thousands of years to remediate on its own. The coal companies have an agenda and will hardly allow the law to slow them down.
After reading the book I felt sick. The mountains of West Virginia are one of the prettiest places in the United States, and yet our government has been caught handing over permits for a process that is clearly illegal under the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts. The courts are of little use....they, too, have been bought by big coal.
This story of the courageous fight of the men and women of the valley is must read if you care for the environment of the planet at all. It is well written and very inspirational that such a small number of people were willing to take on Big Coal.
12 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Raping West Virginia Jan 19, 2008
By C. Hutton
"book maven"
Mr. Shnayerson is a crusader tilting at the relentless hunt for more coal in the out-of-the-way hollows of West Virginia. Strip mining has taken on a new meaning when entire mountains are leveled instead of their mountainsides. The hero of the 300+ page book is local lawyer Joseph Lovett who battles the government and the coal companies for small victories. The book is written in a conversational tone and it is clear that the author is an environmentalist. Given the near total control of West Virginia by the coal companies, that is not a bad thing.
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Coal River exposes "dirty little secret" Jan 24, 2008
By Alex Caulfield
Coal River is an account of a small group of dedicated brave mountaineers who are more than willing to go toe to toe with a ruthless coal baron. King Coal is not accustomed to having his outlaw mining operations challenged. Hats off to Michael Schnayerson for accurately telling this must read story.
19 of 25 found the following review helpful:
 I Badly Wanted to Give this a 5-Star Review Feb 07, 2008
By John Noodles
This book tells an important and timely story--a story of rapacious greed. Coal companies have a long and gaudy history of abuse--abuse of both workers and the environment--and it's a history that continues.
There is much to admire about this book. It is told as a narrative and is in equal parts eco-thriller, human drama, and political/conspiracy thriller. It's entertaining and researched.
The main problem with this book is that Shnayerson is transparently biased in his storytelling. His physical descriptions of people, for example, tend toward the grotesquely unflattering for the villains (like Don Blankenship), and while he does give elements of both sides of the story, it remains obvious which side he's on. The author is fighting the good fight, yes, but to appeal to a wider audience he needs to maintain a tone of greater objectivity. He seems, for instance, surprised and disappointed that the governmental corruption that allows the coal companies' disgusting and continued abuses resides largely among Democrats--who control state government. At one point, talking about coal companies' willful lawbreaking, and the state agencies that permit it (and the judges), he says, "The law was the law, and flagrant disregard for it was hard for any judge to ignore, even a conservative one." Well, he wasn't talking about conservative judges, so where did this come from? Did he just say that conservative judges are more likely to be corrupt than liberal ones? Sure sounds like it to me. In fact, throughout the book, there are only two kinds of judges: conservative judges looking for a reason to side with the coal companies, and "moderate" judges. No liberals here (because liberals apparently all see themselves as moderate).
This sort of thing occurs throughout the book,. He will mention when a Democratic judge or administration does something legally suspect, but that's all he does--he mentions it, in passing, and doesn't dwell on it like he does Republican violators. When a conservative judge decides a case in a manner that he favors, that judge apparently does so only because the law is too obvious to ignore--too obvious even for innately corrupt conservative judges. When conservative judges decide a case in a manner contrary to his position, they are branded "activists" (the term "activist" being synonymous, apparently, with "constructionist" in this case) without further explanation. It doesn't detract, necessarily, from the entertainment value of the book because we enjoy seeing the coal companies getting their rear ends whipped, but it sure is shoddy journalism, and won't win any converts.
Shnayerson's poor handling of the story is unfortunate. In undermining his own credibility in this way, he prevents the critical reader from knowing what to trust in his account. I am a conservative who is very unhappy with other conservatives' handling of environment issues, and I would like someone to write a book like this that doesn't just preach to the choir and alienate the opposition, but that presents the issue as a problem in which we ALL have an interest. Because we do.
Still, this book's conspicuous shortcomings notwithstanding, the rapacity of the coal industry is impossible to deny. The destruction they wreak is too glaring. If only half of what this book says is true, it is still a vivid indictment of the industry and the government agencies--and the corrupt people who work in them--whose job it is to protect the public interest.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent insight to a region and industry largely forgotten by most. Jan 17, 2009
By Doug P.
Pros: This book is a very detailed account of a grass-roots effort to confront industry leaders who have had a very large impact on the communities which host their surface mining operations. The author did a superb job of providing factual information from real-life sources who have felt the effects of surface mining first hand. The stories are intriguing and invoke passion in the reader.
Cons: At certain points the author targets a specific person or group and belabors an idea to the point of redundancy. Also, the author heavily criticizes corporate leaders and conservative politicians for their actions, but offers sympathy and justification for local "activists" during their extreme moments--giving the perception of a steady liberal bias. This bias was a distracter to me as a conservative who still loves the Appalachian Mountains and believes in conservation.
Overall great read, and well worth the reader's time. Highly recommended.
See all 23 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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