Rednecks

Rednecks is a historical novel about the West Virginia Mine Wars of 1920 and 1921, running from the Matewan Massacre to the Battle of Blair Mountain. At Blair Mountain, a multi-ethnic army of 10,000 coal miners faced mine owners, state militia and the United States government in the largest labor uprising in American history. It was also the largest armed conflict on American soil since the Civil War, with about a million rounds fired and bombs dropped on Appalachia. The book also gives an origin story for the term 'redneck'. It won the Southern Book Prize for Fiction. The coal companies use violence and intimidation to stop miners from organizing. Among the blood and injustice of the mining camps works "Doc Moo" Muhanna, a Lebanese-American doctor inspired by the author's own great-grandfather. Frank Hugham, a Black World War One veteran and coal miner, takes dramatic steps to lead a revolt with a band of fellow veterans. Doc Moo risks his life and career to treat the sick and wounded miners, while Frank's grandmother, Beulah, fights her own battle to save her home and her grandson. Real historical figures move through the story. Mother Jones, the Irish-born labor organizer once called "The Most Dangerous Woman in America," struggles to keep the ear of the miners she calls her boys as rebellion spreads. "Smilin" Sid Hatfield, the sharp-shooting police chief, stands up to the coal companies' "gun thugs" and becomes a folk hero of the mine wars. Taylor Brown tells this episode of buried American history through its characters, as a story of rebellion against oppression, unexpected friendship, heroism in the face of injustice, and the power of love and community. It also traces the hard-won origins of today's unions.