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Book Review
| To Save the Land and People: A History of Opposition to Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia. By Chad Montrie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. xv + 245 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. Paper $18.95.
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| Starting with the local color writers movement of the late nineteenth century and continuing through to the latest attempt by CBS to launch a Beverly Hillbillies reality show, inhabitants of Appalachia have been lampooned in the national news media and other outlets as a backward, fatalistic, and quiescent people. According to Stephen L. Fisher, "During the 1960s and 1970s, some in Appalachia sought to counter this image, either by painting highly romanticized pictures of traditional Appalachian culture and then lamenting its destruction by outside forces or by describing the many ways in which the region had been economically exploited by the rest of the country. But far too often these efforts unwittingly reinforced the notion of Appalachians as victims, as non-actors in determining their fate." As Chad Montrie shows us, however, nothing could be further from the truth. Building on the work of Fisher and others, Montrie reminds us that citizens all across the region waged a relentless decades-long battle to protect their farms and communities from the ravages of strip mining. |
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After sketching out the region's geologic history, Montrie starts the reader off with a concise examination of the forces that set the stage for large-scale mineral extraction in Appalachia. This is followed by a brief review of the technological developments that permitted surface coal-mining operations to compete successfully with the underground mining industry. Of course these same innovations—from early steam shovels to "monster" draglines—ushered in a dark new age of environmental destruction. The next five chapters track the emergence of local opposition groups dedicated to the goal of banning strip mine operations at the state-wide level. |
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The last three chapters carry the story of the opposition movement from the coalfields of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia, where limited victories were recorded, to the nation's capital, where the campaign was conducted in the halls of Congress. Along the way, Montrie does a masterful job of identifying the shifting alliances that shaped the battle between strip-mine operators and opponents of strip mining from its earliest days to the present. |
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No less impressive is his ability to reconstruct the social and political context within which legislative decisions were made; communicate the uniquely Appalachian nature of the opposition movement; and convey the sense of frustration industry opponents felt as the movement began to lose momentum. Indeed, while some hailed passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 as a landmark achievement for the opposition movement, weary veterans of the struggle saw only a pyrrhic victory—a weak political compromise riddled with loopholes and limitations. |
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Given the paucity of research on the topic, Montrie's book will no doubt find a welcome spot on the shelf of many an Appalachian scholar. Anyone with broad interests in twentieth-century American environmentalism, mining history, and environmental justice also will find it a compelling read. Meticulously researched and highly readable, To Save the Land and People tells a story that needs to be heard—especially in Beverly Hills. |
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Reviewed by Geoffrey Buckley, University of Ohio. |
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