"Rebecca R. Scott takes us into the coalfields, mining the cultural poetics that give rise to conflicts over the meaning and significance of this disturbing technology. Her careful excavations reveal the roles that gender, race, and class play in shaping people’s sense of belonging both in their local environments and in the larger modern world. These are deep—and sometimes deeply ... Read morecontradictory—cultural processes that are all but invisible to those content to stay on the surface. Scott strips away the easy answers and finds hard questions underneath." —Matt Wray, Temple University Show Less