“Shapiro’s careful analyses, clear argument, and excellent writing elevate the convict wars to one of the South’s major struggles between capital and labor.” — Law and History Review
“Shapiro has produced the book-length version that this dramatic episode has long needed. It not only supersedes previous accounts — it overwhelms. Shapiro’s exhaustive research in scores of newspapers, manuscript collections, government documents, company reports, court cases, and all the pertinent secondary literature results in vivid portrayals of the miners, their communities, the businessmen they confronted, and the hapless state government — all analyzed with care, coolness, and discriminating judgment.” — Journal of Southern History
“Simply by bringing this fascinating chronicle fully to light, Shapiro adds significantly to the literature in the field, but her contribution extends much further, ultimately helping us to understand much about the character of industrial and community relations in the small coal towns of the postbellum South.” — Reviews in American History
“Shapiro’s book eschews facile romantic views of southern labor as a brotherhood of class-conscious workers striving to overthrow the system. Instead, she gives us an analysis of the forces — -social, economic, and political — -that shaped labor militancy, and consequently she has created a much more balanced, complex, and compelling portrait of labor in the New South.” — American Historical Review
“A sophisticated and multilayered analysis. . . . Shapiro aptly draws on the tension between old and new to highlight multiple themes including region, colonialism, urbanization, class consciousness, agency, and militancy.” — Labour
“Insightful. . . . An engaging story about the interaction of the state government, miners, and mine managers in late-nineteenth-century Tennessee. . . The book will stand as a valuable contribution to the history of labor union activity in the South.” — Journal of Economic History
“A masterpiece of narrative and interpretive insight. . . . A sympathetic outside perspective that allows us to understand the region and its people with greater clarity and discernment.” — Appalachian Journal
“Karin Shapiro has written a compelling story that is also a brilliant analysis of convict labor, industrial life, and political economy in the New South.” — Edward L. Ayers, University of Virginia
“Karin Shapiro’s deeply researched study of New South labor militancy. . . . joins a short list of fine recent books that have raised our understanding of the travails of the South’s working people to a new level of nuance and sophistication. It should be read by anyone who cares about democratic struggles, . . . then and now.” — Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
