Review 488: Rednecks

Rednecks by Taylor Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An accurate portrayal of the most violent labor strike in the US that has been ignored. There was an all out war in the mountains of West Virginia against King Coal, the mine operators, the hired detective agencies and all else who fought against the miners and union men who wanted to be their fair due for working the mines.

The book is quite violent and told like a war story, and that is because this union strike turned into a war.

The book was well written, had some great phrases and descriptions, however my one gripe is the other side was shown as completely in the wrong with no redeeming quality. Not every person is fully evil or bad, and having a bit of humanity in portraying the other side does lend for a better read.

That said, this book returns a history that has been forgotten and needs to be remembered.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

However, I did listen to the audiobook version from my local library. An excellent way to read this book.

Initial quick review:

read the audiobook
Quite more violent than I expected, but reading some of the history this book stays true to what happened. Shocking!