Reckoning at Eagle Creek

Jeff Biggers
January 2010     ISBN: 1568584210

Award-winning journalist and cultural historian Jeff Biggers takes us on a journey into the secret history of coal mining in the American heartland. Set in the ruins of his family's strip-mined homestead in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois, Biggers delivers a deeply personal portrait of the largely overlooked human and environmental costs of our nation's dirty energy policy. Reckoning at Eagle Creek digs deep into the tangled roots of the coal industry beginning with the policies of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, chronicling the removal of Native Americans and the hidden story of legally sanctioned black slavery in the land of Lincoln. It uncovers a century of regulatory negligence, vividly describing the epic mining wars for union recognition and workplace safety and the devastating consequences of industrial strip-mining.

At the heart of our national debate over climate change and the crucial transition toward clean energy is the Obama administration's controversial pursuit of "clean coal." Biggers exposes the fallacy that lies at the heart of this policy and shatters the Big Coal marketing myth that southern Illinois represents the "Saudi Arabia of coal." Reckoning at Eagle Creek is ultimately an exposé of "historicide"—one that traces coal's harrowing legacy through the great American family saga of sacrifice, resiliency and the extraordinary process of recovering our nation's memory. Coal will never be called clean or cheap again.

Watch a multimedia theater performance hosted by The Nation Institute in June here.

"As this fine book makes clear, coal has always and ever been a curse, poisoning everything and everyone it touches—right up to the climate on which we depend for our daily bread. What a story!"
—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

"Jeff Biggers exposes the truth about coal in America—how the myth of 'clean coal' destroys even family histories. But Biggers is a longtime warrior in another fight—to stabilize climate and preserve a good life for future generations. Let us hope his message about dirty coal is read far and wide."
—Dr. James Hansen, director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

"This is a world-shaking, belief-rattling, immensely important book. If you're an American, it is almost a patriotic duty to read it."
—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

"Part historical narrative, part family memoir, part pastoral paean, and part jeremiad against the abuse of the land and of the men who gave and continue to give their lives to (and often for) the mines, the book puts a human face on the industry that supplies nearly half of America’s energy... [I]t offers a rare historical perspective on the vital yet little considered industry, along with a devastating critique of the myth of 'clean coal.'"
—Publishers Weekly