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A Mighty Force: Dr. Elizabeth Hayes and Her War for Public Health
In the last half of 1945, news of the war's end and aftermath shared space with reports of a battle on the home front, led by a woman. She was Elizabeth O. Hayes, MD, doctor for a coal company that owned the town of Force, PA, where sewage contaminated the drinking waters, and ambulances sank into muddy unpaved roads while corrupt managers, ensconced in Manhattan high-rises, refused to make improvements.
When Hayes resigned to protest intolerable living conditions, 350 miners followed her in strike, shaking the foundation of the town and attracting a national media storm. Press - including women reporters, temporarily assigned to national news desks in wartime - flocked to the small mining town to champion Dr. Hayes' cause. Slim, blonde, and 33, "Dr. Betty" became the heroine of an environmental drama that captured the nation's attention, complete with mustache-twirling villains, surprises, setbacks, and a mostly happy ending.
News outlets ranging from Business Week to the Daily Worker applauded her guts. Woody Guthrie wrote a song about her. Soldiers followed her progress in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, flooding her with fan mail. A Philadelphia newspaper recommended Dr. Betty's prescription to " Get Good and Angry." President Harry S. Truman referred her grievances to his justice department, which handed her a victory.
A Mighty Force is the only book, popular or academic, written about Hayes. Readers interested in feminism, the environment, corporate accountability, and the World War II home front will be excited to discover this engaging, untold episode in women's history. Fortunately, a fascinated press captured Hayes's words and deeds in scores of news pieces. Author Marcia Biederman uses these pieces, written by major news outlets and tiny local papers, as well as interviews with descendants, letters written by Hayes's opponents, union files, court records, an observer's scrapbook, mining company data, and a journalist's oral history to tell the story of Dr. Betty and her pursuit of public health for the first time.
When Hayes resigned to protest intolerable living conditions, 350 miners followed her in strike, shaking the foundation of the town and attracting a national media storm. Press - including women reporters, temporarily assigned to national news desks in wartime - flocked to the small mining town to champion Dr. Hayes' cause. Slim, blonde, and 33, "Dr. Betty" became the heroine of an environmental drama that captured the nation's attention, complete with mustache-twirling villains, surprises, setbacks, and a mostly happy ending.
News outlets ranging from Business Week to the Daily Worker applauded her guts. Woody Guthrie wrote a song about her. Soldiers followed her progress in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, flooding her with fan mail. A Philadelphia newspaper recommended Dr. Betty's prescription to " Get Good and Angry." President Harry S. Truman referred her grievances to his justice department, which handed her a victory.
A Mighty Force is the only book, popular or academic, written about Hayes. Readers interested in feminism, the environment, corporate accountability, and the World War II home front will be excited to discover this engaging, untold episode in women's history. Fortunately, a fascinated press captured Hayes's words and deeds in scores of news pieces. Author Marcia Biederman uses these pieces, written by major news outlets and tiny local papers, as well as interviews with descendants, letters written by Hayes's opponents, union files, court records, an observer's scrapbook, mining company data, and a journalist's oral history to tell the story of Dr. Betty and her pursuit of public health for the first time.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
206 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2021
3 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
About the author
Marcia Biederman
11 books42 followersA mystery-writer-turned-biographer, Marcia Biederman is also a journalist who has contributed more than 150 pieces to The New York Times. Her work has also appeared in New York magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, and the International Herald Tribune.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 25, 2021
The Great Depression and World War II precipitated much change in the world around America and in America itself. These times witnessed America’s transition from a inwardly struggling economy into an international leader for human rights. Coal-mining towns transitioned from being operated by companies into independent villages responsible for their own self-government. As described in Biederman’s biography, the forgotten but strong figure Dr. Elizabeth Hayes led the way in pushing for modernization of these coal towns.
Hayes accomplished this by advocating for public health in her patients’ community. Her goals were plain. She wanted miners and their families to choose their medical care instead of having the company choose for them and also sought for them to own and run their own villages. These changes would make miners more responsible for their own upkeep because the companies felt pressure to serve the bottom line over public health.
To reach these goals, Hayes led the miners on a boycott over several weeks. Despite some hardship and push-back, they basically accomplished these aims for their town. Of course, with so much focus on financial and management, the courts became involved and through the courts, the media and then the masses. Both the media and the people loved the idea of a single woman leading a miners’ strike. She even faced personal hardship for them by having her house and clinic overtaken. As detailed in this book, these local changes soon culminated in changes by other coal-towns all over the country.
Biederman, a former mystery author and present-day journalist, keeps the action flowing throughout this book. As its main weakness, this book does not contain much character development. All the people are relatively static and unchanging. This is understandable, though still sad, given that Biederman’s source materials were mainly newspapers of the era, focused on quick stories instead of the evolving human saga. Some inner life and psychological focus would have been helpful, though, amidst all of the business material.
This book will gain readers especially among readers who appreciate a strong female protagonist. It also has historical value by elucidating the tenor of America amidst World War II. Women (and minorities) were relied upon during the distress of the war years, only to be pushed back into their prior roles. This story illustrates this trend well. People like Elizabeth Hayes showed that disadvantaged people could enact positive change and remain strong. Her story has not been widely shared in book-format prior to this biography. We are fortunate to have this tale available in print and preserved for the historical record.
Hayes accomplished this by advocating for public health in her patients’ community. Her goals were plain. She wanted miners and their families to choose their medical care instead of having the company choose for them and also sought for them to own and run their own villages. These changes would make miners more responsible for their own upkeep because the companies felt pressure to serve the bottom line over public health.
To reach these goals, Hayes led the miners on a boycott over several weeks. Despite some hardship and push-back, they basically accomplished these aims for their town. Of course, with so much focus on financial and management, the courts became involved and through the courts, the media and then the masses. Both the media and the people loved the idea of a single woman leading a miners’ strike. She even faced personal hardship for them by having her house and clinic overtaken. As detailed in this book, these local changes soon culminated in changes by other coal-towns all over the country.
Biederman, a former mystery author and present-day journalist, keeps the action flowing throughout this book. As its main weakness, this book does not contain much character development. All the people are relatively static and unchanging. This is understandable, though still sad, given that Biederman’s source materials were mainly newspapers of the era, focused on quick stories instead of the evolving human saga. Some inner life and psychological focus would have been helpful, though, amidst all of the business material.
This book will gain readers especially among readers who appreciate a strong female protagonist. It also has historical value by elucidating the tenor of America amidst World War II. Women (and minorities) were relied upon during the distress of the war years, only to be pushed back into their prior roles. This story illustrates this trend well. People like Elizabeth Hayes showed that disadvantaged people could enact positive change and remain strong. Her story has not been widely shared in book-format prior to this biography. We are fortunate to have this tale available in print and preserved for the historical record.
September 27, 2021
Great story-telling about an unsung hero
I loved this book. The story-telling and character development are excellent. The book reads more like a novel than a history book; it is so much more than a list of names and dates. The story is well paced and I found it difficult to put the book down. It has everything I was expecting, a mix of history, science, and politics. The hardest part of the book to accept was that such unsanitary conditions existed so late into the 20th century. I had to check the dates on occasion as a reality check. This is a great read about an unsung hero and I recommend it for anyone interested in history or public health. Thank you to Netgalley and Rowman & Littlefield for the advance reader copy.
I loved this book. The story-telling and character development are excellent. The book reads more like a novel than a history book; it is so much more than a list of names and dates. The story is well paced and I found it difficult to put the book down. It has everything I was expecting, a mix of history, science, and politics. The hardest part of the book to accept was that such unsanitary conditions existed so late into the 20th century. I had to check the dates on occasion as a reality check. This is a great read about an unsung hero and I recommend it for anyone interested in history or public health. Thank you to Netgalley and Rowman & Littlefield for the advance reader copy.
November 14, 2021
Biederman ‘s book reminds us that women in Pennsylvania made enormous contributions to the welfare of others. This remarkable story shows how one courageous woman doctor fought the “big dogs” and won for miners and their families in a rural pocket in the 1940s. Her descriptions of the primitive conditions that the Shawnut Mining Company condemned its workers to live under were so descriptive that readers could almost feel the sewage sludge. I never hear of this woman before, but now I will never forget her.
November 18, 2021
This is an exceptionally thorough, yet readable, account of a woman doctor who changed mining communities in rural Pennsylvania in the 1940s by being an underestimated force to "Big Coal." Her efforts to ensure miners' families had safe, uncontaminated water brought media attention to Force, Hollywood, and Byrnedale and their dismal, sub-par living conditons. Biederman's investigative research identifies Dr. Betty Hayes' allies and enemies as protests, a Federal court hearing, receiverships, a personal eviction, and news suppressions round out this remarkable story. Dr. Betty's impact influenced mining communities nationwide. Biederman draws readers into this fight, championing the might of this forgotten hero. Excellent book.
May 6, 2022
This is a good book for those who enjoy biographies of little-known, but important women. Marcia Biederman brings her business journalism skills to this story, explaining how a company physician fought for safe drinking water and indoor plumbing for her patients in a small Pennsylvania coal mining town. In the 1940s, Dr. Elizabeth Hayes and her crusade made page one news. So why don't we know about her, as the battles for environmental justice have continued to go on ever since. This is a complicated story involving a woman, who like so many of her time, eventually retreated into the shadows.
Since my first post, the New York Times has done an obituary on Elizabeth Hayes for their "Overlooked" series of obits they should have written when the person died. Here is the link. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/ob...
Since my first post, the New York Times has done an obituary on Elizabeth Hayes for their "Overlooked" series of obits they should have written when the person died. Here is the link. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/ob...
June 28, 2021
Amazing and inspirational. 2 words that barely describe what environmental health activist Dr Elizabeth Hayes work means to our world. I learned a lot about a woman I had never heard of! This book was really well done, made it easy for me to read and I honestly think it should be required reading in science classes. Absolutely great book about a true hero for people and the environmental activism movement.
November 2, 2021
An exhaustively researched but gripping account of good triumphing over evil about a crusading woman whom history has sadly forgotten. Today she’d have gone viral, but kudos to Marcia Biederman for reminding us of this singular combination of Norma Rae, Clara Barton and Erin Brockovitch—Dr. Betty Hayes!
July 17, 2022
A very dry read which struggled to hold my interest in the second half of the book. The book deals with union and labor politics just as much as it deals with public health. Overall, Dr. Elizabeth Hayes comes across as a remarkable woman but I wish the book had been more interesting.
December 8, 2022
Read through this in three nights, inspired by the story of how Dr. Hayes was advocating for public health and sanitation.
August 23, 2025
I'm enjoying this book. I live and grew up close to the community this occurred in and many of the surnames mentioned still live in this area. The home Dr. Betty Hayes grew up in and was still a doctor's office until 20 years ago- I've been in the house and it's history amazed me. A great story about a wonderful little community.
July 21, 2022
Very interesting to read about places and surnames from the area where my kids grew up. HIstorically, who knew so much had happened in Force, PA? Dr Betty Hayes made the international papers during wartime and that was truly impressive.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews