Removing Mountains: Extracting Nature and Identity in the Appalachian Coalfields

by Rebecca R. Scott

A coal mining technique practiced in southern West Virginia known as mountaintop removal is drastically altering the terrain of the Appalachian Mountains. Peaks are flattened and valleys are filled as the coal industry levels thousands of acres of forest to access the coal, in the process turning the forest into scrubby shrublands and poisoning the water. This is dangerous and environmentally devastating work, but as Rebecca R. Scott shows in Removing Mountains, the issues at play are vastly complicated.


In this rich ethnography of life in Appalachia, Scott examines mountaintop removal in light of controversy and protests from environmental groups calling for its abolishment. But Removing Mountains takes the conversation in a new direction, telling the stories of the businesspeople, miners, and families who believe they depend on the industry to survive. Scott reveals these southern Appalachian coalfields as a meaningful landscape where everyday practices and representations help shape a community's relationship to the environment.


Removing Mountains demonstrates that the paradox that faces this community-forced to destroy their land to make a wage-raises important questions related not only to the environment but also to American national identity, place, and white working-class masculinity.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Alex Knipp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Scott is incredible and fantastic and so articulate wow. New daydream: Dr. Scott is my PhD supervisor, we investigate the impact of extractivism in vulnerable communities in Appalachia by day and solve crimes by night. 100/10

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where this book really succeeds is creating a sense of place. It combines the journalistic quality of dozens of interviews with deep analysis to really make the reader think about Appalachia and West Virginia in particular. I learned a lot.

[Eliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well researched and in-depth analysis, allowed me to re-examine some of my own preconceptions. My one complaint is that this book is written at a very academic level, so it was very dense reading; I wish the information had been presented more accessibly.

[A.F. Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredible!

[Nicole1999 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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