In the Scranton area, history is buried literally and figuratively. The remnants of a once vibrant coal industry lurk underground; the sweep of time has effaced a legacy of environmental damage and social turmoil. Bill Conlogue's insightful book masterfully takes stock of transformations in the region's present by uncovering much of its forgotten past. -- John Bodnar, Indiana University, author of Our Towns: Remembering Community in Indiana In Undermined in Coal Country, Bill Conlogue has achieved a heart-rending expose of the damage done heedless mining practices and greed to his hometown and the whole of coal country and a powerful metaphor of the human condition with the hope that studies of the arts and humanities may offer. -- Mary Clearman Blew, University of Idaho, author of This is Not the Ivy League: A Memoir Part family history, part environmental lament, part literary meditation, Undermined in Coal Country is a compelling investigation of the high costs that the anthracite coal industry has imposed on northeastern Pennsylvania. In a distinctive voice, Conlogue emphasizes the devastation not merely caused by coal extraction but its danger coupled with a dishonest celebration of blue-collar suffering, thereby diminishing the expectations of those who live and work there today. Anyone who grew up in the rustbelt, as I did myself, should read Bill Conlogue's book. -- Clifton Hood, Hobart and William Smith College, author of 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York Remarkably well written, graceful, and powerful. This hybrid book, which is both scholarly and literary, boldly explores the place of literature (and the liberal arts in general) in dealing with environmental issues and understanding local environments. -- Ian Marshall, author of Story Line: Exploring the Literature of the Appalachian Trail Undermined in Coal Country is a thoughtful reading of the subsidence - both literal and metaphoric - that everywhere insinuates our local and global landscapes. Grounded in the communities in and around Scranton, PA, Conlogue traces broader, interwoven narratives of resource extraction, community, labor, literature, and education to provide readers with nuanced ways to understand what might lie beneath the surfaces of the places they call home. -- Pavel Cenkl, Sterling College

Deep mining ended decades ago in Pennsylvania's Lackawanna Valley. The barons who made their fortunes have moved on. Low wages and high unemployment haunt the area, and the people left behind wonder whether to stay or seek their fortunes elsewhere. Once dominated by the boom-and-busts of coal mining, the valley's shared history touches communities as far-flung as the Pacific Northwest, the Gulf Coast shorelines, and the mountains of West Virginia. Bill Conlogue explores how two overlapping coal country landscapes-Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Marywood University-have coped with the devastating aftermath of mining. Examining the far-reaching environmental effects of mining, including heavy deforestation, geological disruption, and mine fires, this beautifully written book asks bigger questions about what it means to influence a landscape to this extent-and then to live in it. In prose rivaling that of Annie Dillard and John McPhee, Conlogue describes a fascinating paradox: because of coal mining, the city and college have suffered, but the United States has grown stronger. Examining higher education through the lens of an unstable region still reeling from its industrial heritage, Undermined in Coal Country defends the study of literature and history as parts of an interdisciplinary web of meaning. Conlogue argues that, if we are serious about solving environmental problems, if we are serious about knowing where we are and what happens there, we need to attend closely to all places-that is, to attend to the world in a cold, dark, and disorienting universe. Unearthing new ways of thinking about place, pedagogy, and the environment, this meditative text reveals that place is inherently unstable.