Thunder on the Mountain: Death at Massey and the Dirty Secrets behind Big Coal

My grandfather was a West Virginia coal miner and I am enjoying this book

Why we tolerate ruthless greedy CEO's who make a fortune ruining the environment strip mining then taking their stack and escaping to Europe their floating pleasure palaces of over the top yachts or planes will buy them a coveted place in the upper class is not a new story. The best quotation about these foolish clowns was written over a hundred years ago by Edith Wharton she described the robber barons as a"spitting tobacco-chewing crew and reluctant backwoodsmen describes this poor good ol local boy who made good real good and let one of the poorest section of West Virginia know it . Massey Energy racked up so many violations under this clop hopper who claims to be the heart and spirit of working class America ! It's a well written easy to read book and my hat goes off to any coal miner that had to work under this titian of industry

A great, in-depth review of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster and the culture of carelessness and greed that made this (and other disasters of this type) possible. Dinged one star only because it is somewhat dated, leaving me to wonder what progress has been made since it was published.

Galuszka has produced an excellent review of not only the poster boy for Big Coal abuse (Massey Coal), but also a well-structured look at the social and cultural impact of the industry on Appalachia and its people. Also, he provides an insightful look at the future impact of the global coal operations, not only its potential impact on foreign lands, but also the potential impact on the Appalachian area he has written about in his book. Recent announcements of layoffs by Massey's current owner would appear to make his analysis quite on point.

A critically important read for those looking to understand the economic, political, and environmental forces shaping Appalachian coal extraction today.

Liberal point of view instead of an actual journalists point of view. There is some informative parts, but when Galuszka talks about the actual mining process, his information is completely off., Which is what ruined it for me. If he would have stuck to his topic of Massey I would have enjoyed it more.

Great history and story here well written

remember when it comes to how good or how bad a book is, it is very subjective. The book was very interesting, however, I noticed several things that were some type of speculation or poorly researched topics. Example, there are 120 counties in Kentucky not 125 as the author says. The author claims power shovels remove thousands of cubic yards of earth in a single pass. When in fact the biggest drag line, (Bigger than a shovel) only moved a little over 200 cubic yards a pass. There are other pieces of misinformation also. Makes me wonder how things he was wrong about that I didn't catch. Clearly written by someone who is against the use of coal, and I am clearly pro coal. But still, somehow, I did enjoy the book.