Matewan: Blood and Coal

One of the latest releases from Hardball Press, Matewan is a new fictionalized take on the events of Matewan, West Virginia, in the coal wars of the 1920s—one of America’s most explosive labor conflicts, where, the publisher writes, “courage is measured in sacrifice, and history is written in blood.” Corley, a history teacher, says of the book, based on decades of research: “History is often remembered through dates and headlines. I’ve always been interested in the people behind those events—the families, workers, and communities whose lives were changed by history.”