Below is a list of recommended books, songs, and documentaries about coal mining and/or the labor movement that are recommended by the United Mine Workers of America. If you would like your work reviewed by the United Mine Workers of America, email journal@umwa.org.
New Release
Fight Like Hell: The Testimony of Mother Jones
Drawn from her autobiography, letters, speeches, and interviews, FIGHT LIKE HELL is as bold and forceful as Mother Jones herself. Adapted from Obie Award-winning Actress Kaiulani Lee’s one-woman play “Can’t Scare Me,” FIGHT LIKE HELL was written and performed by Lee and directed by Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Ian Cheney.
The River Drivers – Big Oak Road
Released in 2019, some of the UMWA’s favorite songs include:
Children’s March (Mother Jones)
Union Man
Farewell Johnny Miner
Click here to listen or buy a copy of this CD!
“These songs tell the stories of people who were just trying to get by and had other peoples’ for-tunes made on their backs—the stories of what they suffered through and what they did to overcome.”
Books
UMWA and other Labor History
- United We Stand by Maier Fox
- West Virginia Mine Wars and Disasters
- Southern Colorado Mine Wars and Ludlow Massacre
- Mother Jones by Elliot Gorn
- Which Side Are You On?: The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-1939 by John Hevener
- A Strike Like No Other Strike by Richard A. Brisbin, Jr.
Historical Fiction
The Labor Movement
Music
- Tom Breiding –
- River, Rails or Road
- The Unbroken Circle: Songs of the West Virginia Coalfields
- Altar of the Bottom Line by Tom Juravich
- Union Man by Nate Venturelli
Documentaries
- Out of Darkness by Barbara Kopple
- Mother Jones, the Most Dangerous Woman in America by Rosemary Feurer and Laura Vazquez
- American Experience: The Mine Wars by PBS
