THEY SAY IN HARLAN COUNTY

by Portelli

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 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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Oral History, American History, The United States Of America, Historical, Labor

464 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 2010

Reviews

[trovateOrtensia · Rating 5 out of 5]

We Shall Overcome

Libro di grandissima qualità.
Un secolo della storia e della vita (economica, materiale, sociale, politica) di Harlan County, piccolo centro minerario del Kentucky, teatro di durissime lotte sindacali nella prima metà del Novecento, che si delinea quale microcosmo simbolico in cui le voci degli abitanti fanno emergere la "controstoria" di un' America profonda, altrimenti priva della possibilità di essere testimoniata, e quindi perduta per sempre.
Dal punto di vista metodologico, il libro è composto secondo la pratica della storia orale, di cui Alessandro Portelli è uno dei massimi esponenti.
Il brano che segue, tratto dalla Introduzione, espone gli obiettivi dell'opera e la tecnica con cui sono stati perseguiti:
"Questo libro cerca di tracciare un quadro vastissimo, l'intera storia degli Stati Uniti, con il dettaglio pointillistico della microstoria - e cerca di farlo basandosi su un medium intrinsecamente ridondante come l'oralità. (...)
Come un regista cinematografico, o un direttore d'orchestra, ho pensato al mio compito soprattutto come quello di costruire un discorso coerente e di esprimere il mio pensiero attraverso le voci di altri. Perciò il principio organizzativo principale è il montaggio, la campionatura o sampling (come in musica) e, forse più aderente al contesto, il patchwork, il quilt: una forma di bricolage che come le trapunte tradizionali appalachiane fatte con materiali di riuso, crea un nuovo insieme significante ricomponendo una pluralità di frammenti estratti a loro volta da altri insiemi significanti. Avevo in mente qualche modello letterario - da Joseph Conrad a John Dos Passos - ma ho pensato soprattutto in termini musicali, l'antifona di solo e insieme nel jazz, o le forme che confluiscono nell'oratorio barocco, in Handel o Bach: una sequenza di arie (qui, lunghe citazioni di singole voci) e di corali (rapidi montaggi d'insieme di brevi citazioni che sembrano parlare contemporaneamente) tenute insieme dal recitativo, la mia stessa voce che connette, commenta, interpreta senza peraltro spiegare tutto. Molto è implicito nelle lacune e nei silenzi, e sta alla cooperazione del lettore, se vuole, estrarlo e interpretarlo."

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d go so far as to say, pair this with Harlan County USA, and you’d have as clear a picture of coal country, of Appalachia, of even the South at large, as you could get in one place.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

My family is from Harlan County and has lived there for nearly 400 years. My dad moved to Chicago with his parents in the 60's and I have been hearing about Kentucky all my life. The stories are like legends from the old country, the place is so different from Chicago. This book has our family mentioned many times, and it is a great read to understand the kind of lives the people there lead. There are many cultural things that get lost when we move out of a place. This book really illuminates many beliefs and cultural traditions I have heard about from my family.

[Whit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alessandro Portelli, an Italian, stayed in Harlan County, Kentucky, and conducted more than 200 interviews to create this book. Endlessly fascinating, heartbreaking, surprising. A history book well-suited for those who aren't usually interested in history. Aesthetically organized and told. Can't wait to revisit.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being from eastern Kentucky, this book hit home. My father worked at the brickyard, not the coal mines, but neighbors worked in the mines. The coal mines left many injured, disabled, and ill with black lung disease, and sometimes they got killed.

They Say in Harlan County is oral history at its best. Told by more than 150 voices who gave first-hand accounts of what it was like being a coal miner in eastern Kentucky while trying to organize a union and who talked about everyday life that included traditions and cultures.

The book gives a glimpse into the American psyche and is a history of class, drugs, labor wars, poverty, racism, and segregation.

"Harlan is the only place in this country where I hear the word class on the lips of someone who is not an academic." ~Portelli, page 9

Alessandro Portelli is an Italian scholar of American literature and culture. He brings to this oral history an eye-opening account of eastern Kentucky from the days of Daniel Boone to the publication of this book in 2011.

There are 46 pages of notes at the end of the book pointing the reader to resources used during research. The book also has a 22-page index.

This book is recommended for anyone who is interested in the culture and traditions of the Appalachian area of the United States.

​

[Devin Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly this book is not the best oral history with the most supportive methodology. Portillo but off more than he could chew. The writing is not very accessible and does not make the stories come to life- there were better ways to contextualize what was happening and there was a lot of erasure of indigenous stories, or much care when dealing with sensitive content. I honestly didn’t like it so much that I literally couldn’t finish it all.

[Laughslast · Rating 2 out of 5]

My review is bias and unfair. I had to read this for a class. I'm not really a fan of oral history and I'm not very interested in labor history. So my review is really just based on my personal preference and not the actual quality of the book. If you are a fan of labor history and like oral history this book will most likely be much better than 2 stars for you.

[Lori Keeton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alessandro Portelli, a professor at the University of Rome in Italy, was the first international James Still Fellow at the University of Kentucky’s Appalachian Center. A faculty exchange program was established between the two universities. Portelli spent 20 years on this book listening and talking to 150 people in the Appalachian region of Kentucky. This book is filled with their words and perspectives on culture, religion, living in coal mining communities, violence and so much more. He goes into the labor disputes and union fights, etc. that these folks lived.

I found it to be interesting and detailed. I would recommend it to anyone who likes reading Oral histories as that was hugely important to Appalachian culture.

[Dottie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned some things about events in my own life which were on the periphery of the events chronicled in this book. It deepened my connection to my own roots and my admiration for my father whose death was hastened by injuries and coal dust blackened lungs. A very unusual book in the formatting but it worked quite well given the subjects and the people who were telling their stories.

[Joan Manias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent oral history of life in the Appalachian coal country expertly written with archival documents from Harlan County, Kentucky and the author’s interviews of descendants of miners.

[Ronda Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is an interesting collection of memories.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a long, dense, complex book, and I am very grateful to the woman who wrote a piece complaining about the sentimentality of Hillbilly Elegy for recommending it:

https://elizabethcatte.com/2016/10/16...

This book gave me the history, context, and through-line I'd been craving after reading White Trash by Nancy Isenberg and Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. The author begins the history of the region with the first white settlers who came after the Revolutionary War.

Because it's an oral history, most of the words are taken directly from interviews. And in the middle of the book, I found myself wishing for fewer voices, if only to put some shape to the relentless tales of violence that happened during the coal wars. The author himself says that most of the people he interviewed couldn't keep all of the strikes straight, and I wish he had pulled back from some of the details so that his readers would be able to.

[Kaiti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was absolutely brilliantly done. I don't want to say "written" because the vast majority is from nterviews, so it's more that it's well pieced together and formatted. I went into this not really expecting much but I was really surprised how emotional it all was.

[Cait]

This was a good book.

[Rosanne R. Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to read in-depth the plight of the Appalachian people, this is the place to turn. Insightful!

[Val]

what i read was amazing but my attention span/headspace wasn't right! definitely going to try to come back to this later!