They Say in Harlan County: An Oral History - Couverture rigide

Portelli, Alessandro

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0199735689 ISBN 13 : 9780199735686

Editeur : Oxford University Press Inc, 2010

Synopsis

Made famous in the 1976 documentary Harlan County USA, this pocket of Appalachian coal country has been home to generations of miners-and to some of the most bitter labor battles of the 20th century. It has also produced a rich tradition of protest songs and a wealth of fascinating culture and custom that has remained largely undiscovered by outsiders, until now. They Say in Harlan County is not a book about coal miners so much as a dialogue in which more than 150 Harlan County women and men tell the story of their region, from pioneer times through the dramatic strikes of the 1930s and '70s, up to the present. Alessandro Portelli, one of the giants of the oral history movement, draws on 25 years of original interviews to take readers into the mines and inside the lives of those who work, suffer, and often die in them-from black lung, falling rock, suffocation, or simply from work that can be literally backbreaking. The book is structured as a vivid montage of all these voices-stoic, outraged, grief-stricken, defiant-skillfully interwoven with documents from archives, newspapers, literary works, and the author's own participating and critical voice. Portelli uncovers the whole history and memory of the United States in this one symbolic place, through settlement, civil war, slavery, industrialization, immigration, labor conflict, technological change, migration, strip mining, environmental and social crises, and resistance. And as hot-button issues like mountain-top removal and the use of "clean coal" continue to hit the news, the history of Harlan County-especially as seen through the eyes of those who lived it-is becoming increasingly important. With rare emotional immediacy, gripping narratives, and unforgettable characters, They Say in Harlan County tells the real story of a culture, the resilience of its people, and the human costs of coal mining.

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

A beautiful book...They Say In Harlan County will stand as an important example of the craft of the oral historian for a very long time... In an era obsessed with the acceleration of culture and of knowledge being conveyed in a limited number of characters this book stands out as a model of what reflection, consideration and thought still has to offer in understanding the human condition. (Tim Strangleman, Oral History Journal)

By any standards, this is a remarkable and compelling work. (J. D. A. Widdowson, Centre for English Traditional Heritage)

Biographie de l'auteur :

Alessandro Portelli is Professor of American Literature at the University of Rome-La Sapienza. He is the author of The Death of Luigi Trastulli: Form and Meaning in Oral History; The Text and the Voice: Speaking, Writing, and Democracy in American Literature; The Battle of Valle Giulia: Oral History and the Art of Dialogue; and The Order Has Already Been Carried Out: History, Memory and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Oxford University Press Inc
• Date d'édition: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0199735689
• ISBN 13: 9780199735686
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 456