The Rehabilitation of Tony Boyle: A Contextual History of the United Mine Workers of America

This book is an organizational history of the United Mine Workers of America and a record of the context of this history as it relates to the murder of Jock Yablonski in 1969. American coal miners were among the most exploited workers in the nation's history, subject to ferocious violence at the hands of employers and the state. Their struggles and self-organization attracted the attention of political actors like revolutionary socialists and liberal elites, who sought to dominate, or at least influence, their organizations. In the daily life of capital accumulation, coal operators sought to undermine the coal miners' unions by bribing organic leaders from among the miners to switch sides and fight for the coal companies. Each group of outside interests had varying levels of success in influencing America's coal miners and their unions.