Full Description
Once a busy if impoverished center for the anthracite coal industry, northeastern Pennsylvania exists today as a region suffering inexorable decline--racked by economic hardship and rampant opioid abuse, abandoned by young people, and steeped in xenophobic fear. Paul A. Shackel merges analysis with oral history to document the devastating effects of a lifetime of structural violence on the people who have stayed behind. Heroic stories of workers facing the dangers of underground mining stand beside accounts of people living their lives in a toxic environment and battling deprivation and starvation by foraging, bartering, and relying on the good will of neighbors. As Shackel reveals the effects of these long-term traumas, he sheds light on people's poor health and lack of well-being. The result is a valuable on-the-ground perspective that expands our understanding of the social fracturing, economic decay, and anger afflicting many communities across the United States. Insightful and dramatic, The Ruined Anthracite combines archaeology, documentary research, and oral history to render the ongoing human cost of environmental devastation and unchecked capitalism.
Contents
Preface Introduction
Chapter 1. Structural Violence in the Anthracite
Chapter 2. Coal and People
Chapter 3. Living in the Anthracite
Chapter 4. The Duplan Silk Mill and the Garment Industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania
Chapter 5. Food Insecurities in the Anthracite
Chapter 6. The Toxic Anthracite Environment
Chapter 7. Traditions, Traditional Medicines, and Powwowers
Chapter 8. Remembering the Anthracite
Chapter 9. The Making of Contemporary Northeastern Pennsylvania and the City of Hazleton
Chapter 10. Some Challenges Facing a Deindustrialized Community
Conclusion
References
Index
