Blood Runs Coal

The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America

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Pub Date 13 Oct 2020 | Archive Date 30 Sep 2020

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Description

The shocking assassination of a major rival to UMWA president Tony Boyle catalyzed groundbreaking reform in the coal mining industry.

In the early hours of New Year’s Eve 1969, in the small soft-coal mining borough of Clarksville, Pennsylvania, longtime trade union insider Joseph “Jock” Yablonski and his wife and daughter were brutally murdered in their old stone farmhouse. Seven months earlier, Yablonski had announced his campaign to oust the corrupt president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), Tony Boyle. Boyle had long embezzled UMWA funds, silenced intra-union dissent, and served the interests of Big Coal companies. He was enraged about his opponent’s bid to take over.

An extraordinary portrait of one of the nation’s major unions on the brink of historical change, Blood Runs Coal comes at a time of resurgent labor movements in the United States and the current administration’s attempts to bolster the fossil fuel industry. Brilliantly researched and compellingly written, it sheds light on the far-reaching effects of industrial and socioeconomic change that unfold across America to this day.

About the Author: Mark A. Bradley has been a US Department of Justice lawyer, a criminal defense lawyer, and a CIA intelligence officer. Currently the director of the Information Security Oversight Office of the National Archives and Records Administration, he lives in Virginia.

The shocking assassination of a major rival to UMWA president Tony Boyle catalyzed groundbreaking reform in the coal mining industry.

In the early hours of New Year’s Eve 1969, in the small soft-coal...


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EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9780393652536
PRICE $27.95 (USD)

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Featured Reviews

This incredibly informative account of an insurgency within the United Mine Workers of America provides context for the evolution of unions in America. I had personally never heard of the crime at the center of this book before, and was not particularly aware of the history of the UMWA, but the background provided is sufficient to understand the impact of Yablonski's actions. The book is well written, not overloaded with dates or nicknames that would make following the events complicated, and engaging as a piece of narrative nonfiction.

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