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In late 1994, wells in Pie, West Virginia, began to go dry, leaving many
residents of the small coal-mining town without potable water. When local
housewife Trish Bragg made a few phone calls in an effort to solve this problem,
she had no idea that her inquiries would eventually lead to her becoming the
named plaintiff in a major lawsuit, a summa cum laude college graduate, and a
hero of her community.
Moving Mountains recounts the struggle of Trish Bragg and other
ordinary West Virginians for fair treatment by the coal companies that dominate
the local economies of southern West Virginia. The collateral effects of
mountaintop removal, deep mining, and other mining practices are felt most
profoundly in the communities that supply much of the labor for these mining
operations, which results in divided loyalties among families that have made
their living from coal mining for generations. Author Penny Loeb spent nine
years chronicling the triumphs and setbacks of people in the West Virginia
coalfields--people caught between the economic opportunities provided by coal
and the detriments to health and to quality of life that are so often the
by-products of the coal industry. The result of her work is an account of the
human and environmental costs of coal extraction, and the inspirational
grassroots crusade to mitigate those costs.
Penny Loeb, a freelance writer who lives outside of
Washington, D.C., is a former senior editor at U.S. News and World
Report and a former investigative reporter for Newsday. She has
received numerous awards for journalism and was a finalist for the Pulitzer
Prize in 1988.
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| Reviews:
"A good human insights supplement
to venerable scholarship such as Henry Caudill"s Night Comes to the Cumberlands.
Recommended." --Choice
"This book is simply one of the
most inspiring books of the last decade, a must-read." --Appalachian Heritage
"Loeb has written a sobering book
that shines a bright light into some rather dark places." --Tucson Citizen
"InMoving Mountains, Loeb provides an intimate look at the
struggles of this housewife-turned-advocate who stood up against the largest
coal mining company in the United
States while trying to protect
the safety and integrity of her coalfield community."--Amanda
Hervey, Kentucky Monthly
"Loeb devoted nine years to this insightful portrait of the contemporary coal
industry, and her text resonates with telling details."--Washington Post
"Loeb compassionately chronicles 10 years of grassroots efforts by citizens of southern West Virginia to protect their homes from coalmining damage."--Publishers Weekly
"Moving Mountains helps us understand the very real threats
mountaintop removal mining poses to the environment, to coalfield residents and
to all of us. It shows, too, both the staggering difficulty and the heartening
possibility of fighting back. We need this book."--Anne Shelby, author of
Appalachian Studies
"For more than 20 years, investigative journalist Penny Loeb
has shone the light of publicity in dark corners, first for newspaper readers,
later for magazine readers. Her book, Moving Mountains, demonstrates
that Loeb's investigative talents translate well to the most in-depth
journalistic medium of all. Painstakingly reported and compellingly written,
Moving Mountains is an
unforgettable account of environmental degradation, those who cause it, those
who suffer from it, and those who try to alleviate it."--Steve Weinberg,
investigative journalist
"The legal and grassroots fight to curtail the destruction continues, and Moving Mountains gives insight into the organizing and lawsuits where the fight began."--Earthjustice
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