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"A revelatory work...oral history at its best." --Studs Terkel
"Silas House and Jason Kyle Howard know how to write, but more importantly, they know how to listen. Their book is filled with the powerful, passionate and authentic voices of men and women who share their heritage, and their outrage. My hope is that others will listen to these voices as well." --Steven V. Roberts, author of Cokie: A Life Well Lived, My Father's Houses and co-author of the New York Times bestseller From This Day Forward "Something's Rising is a moving document of human hope, love, and determination." --Lee Smith, New York Times bestselling novelist Jason Kyle Howard and Silas House's Something's Rising was published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2009 and was deemed "a revelatory work" by the late Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Studs Terkel. Featuring essays about and oral histories of thirteen activists fighting mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia, Something's Rising has been hailed as a landmark book.
Like an old-fashioned hymn sung in rounds, Something’s Rising gives a stirring voice to the lives, culture, and determination of the people fighting the destructive practice of mountaintop removal mining in the coalfields of Central Appalachia. The book features both well-known activists and people who are rarely in the media, including Jean Ritchie, “the mother of folk”; Judy Bonds, a tough-talking coal miner’s daughter; Jack Spadaro, a heroic whistleblower; Kathy Mattea, the beloved country music singer; Denise Giardina, a celebrated writer who ran for governor to bring attention to the issue; and many more. More praise for Something's Rising: "Having decided to tackle mountaintop removal, House and Howard strike at it with cool, measured fury...Something's Rising is a humble call to those who believe that man is capable of all things." --The Washington Times "This important collection illuminates the ongoing betrayal of the American mining town." --Publisher's Weekly (starred review) "House and Howard vividly profile 12 remarkable Appalachians...who are bravely speaking out in defense of Appalachia's threatened landscape." --Booklist (starred review) "In this powerful volume, the authors give voice to people trying to save their mining towns." --Southern Living "A landmark of oral history." --Louisville Courier-Journal "In Something's Rising, we read about children playing on creek bottoms coated with carcinogens and in streams full of dead fish. But we also hear about ordinary Appalachian people overcoming fear and fatalism to stand up for their homes and for God's creation." --Sojourners "Something's Rising gives the reader a window into traditional Appalachian values and culture, and their attachment to a rugged and beautiful landscape that is quickly disappearing beneath coal-company bulldozers." --Lexington Herald-Leader |