Death Underground
The Centralia and West Frankfort Mine Disasters
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Death Underground
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Narrated by:
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Gary D. MacFadden
About this listen
Death Underground: The Centralia and West Frankfort Mine Disasters examines two of the most devastating coal mine disasters in United States history since 1928.
In two southern Illinois towns only forty miles apart, explosions killed 111 men at the Centralia No. 5 mine in 1947 and 119 men at the New Orient No. 2 mine in West Frankfort in 1951. Robert E. Hartley and David Kenney explain the causes of the accidents, identify who was to blame, and detail the emotional impact the disasters had on the survivors, their families, and their communities.
Politics at the highest level of Illinois government played a critical role in the conditions that led to the accidents. Hartley and Kenney address how safety was compromised when inspection reports were widely ignored by state mining officials and mine company supervisors. Highlighted is the role of Driscoll Scanlan, a state inspector at Centralia, who warned of an impending disaster but whose political enemies shifted the blame to him, ruining his career.
Hartley and Kenney also detail the New Orient No. 2 mine explosion, the attempts at rescue, and the resulting political spin circulated by labor, management, and the state bureaucracy. They outline the investigation, the subsequent hearings, and the efforts in Congress to legislate greater mine safety.
Hartley and Kenney include interviews with the survivors, a summary of the investigative records, and an analysis of the causes of both mine accidents. They place responsibility for the disasters on individual mine owners, labor unions, and state officials, providing new interpretations not previously presented in the literature. Augmented by twenty-nine illustrations, the volume also covers the history, culture, and ethnic pluralism of coal mining in Illinois and the United States.
Illinois State Historical Society Award for Superior Achievement. The book is published by Southern Illinois University Press.
©2006 Robert E. Hartley and David Kenney (P)2013 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 196
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 179
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 180
The author of Last Train to Paradise tells the story of the largest public water project ever created - William Mulholland's Los Angeles aqueduct - a story of Gilded Age ambition, hubris, greed, and one determined man whose vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Water challenges never end
- By John Matel on 04-10-15
By: Les Standiford
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The Woman Behind the New Deal
- The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience
- By: Kirstin Downey
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 19 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 201
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 176
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Story5 out of 5 stars 176
Frances Perkins is no longer a household name, yet she was one of the most influential women of the 20th century. Based on extensive archival materials, new documents, and exclusive access to Perkins' family members and friends, this biography is the first complete portrait of a devoted public servant with a passionate personal life, a mother who changed the landscape of American business and society.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Absorbing Biography
- By Jean on 08-16-17
By: Kirstin Downey
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Meet You in Hell
- Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 211
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 137
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 135
Here is history that reads like fiction: the riveting story of two founding fathers of American industry, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, and the bloody steelworkers' strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Author Les Standiford begins at the bitter end, when the dying Carnegie proposes a final meeting after two decades of separation. Frick's reply: "Tell him that I'll meet him in hell."
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3 out of 5 stars
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an extended journalistic tour
- By D. Littman on 06-08-05
By: Les Standiford
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The Path Between the Seas
- The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 31 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,470
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,171
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,172
The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. McCullough expertly weaves the many strands of this momentous event into a captivating tale.
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4 out of 5 stars
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No Stone Unturned
- By Tim on 06-25-13
By: David McCullough
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The Teapot Dome Scandal
- How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House
- By: Laton McCartney
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 135
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
The Teapot Dome scandal of the early 1920s was all about oil - hundreds of millions of dollars� worth of petroleum. When the scandal finally broke, the consequences were tremendous. President Harding's legacy was forever tarnished, while �Oil Cabinet� member Albert Fall was forced to resign and was imprisoned for a year. Others implicated in the affair suffered prison terms, commitment to mental hospitals, suicide, and even murder.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Harding's return to normalcy: corruption
- By Paul on 03-05-08
By: Laton McCartney
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Rising Tide
- The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Barry Grizzard
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 530
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 400
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 400
An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known, the Mississippi flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of nearly one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of blacks north, and transformed American society and politics forever.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Where is the rest of the book?
- By Susie on 10-21-13
By: John M. Barry
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Paradise Falls
- The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe
- By: Keith O'Brien
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 73
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Story5 out of 5 stars 73
Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. In the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly-sweet smell of chemicals.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible work of everyday people
- By J. C. Edens on 11-20-24
By: Keith O'Brien
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American-Made
- The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work
- By: Nick Taylor
- Narrated by: James Boles
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 81
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4 out of 5 stars 38
When President Roosevelt took the oath of office in March 1933, he was facing a devastated nation. Four years into the Great Depression, a staggering 13 million American workers were jobless and many millions more of their family members were equally in need. Desperation ruled the land. In 1935, after a variety of temporary relief measures, a permanent nationwide jobs program was created.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The true spirit of America.
- By Helen on 07-01-08
By: Nick Taylor
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Colossus
- Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century
- By: Michael Hiltzik
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 180
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 123
As breathtaking today as when it was completed, Hoover Dam ranks among America's greatest achievements. The story of its conception, design, and construction is the story of the United States at a unique moment in history: when facing both a global economic crisis and the implacable elements of nature, we prevailed.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Political Biography of the Dam
- By Roy on 02-20-11
By: Michael Hiltzik
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Dark Tide
- The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919
- By: Stephen Puleo
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 376
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 327
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 327
Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters were playing cards in Boston's North End when they heard a tremendous crash. It was like, "a roaring surf," one of them said later. Like, "a runaway two-horse team smashing through a fence," said another. A third firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window - "Oh my God!" he shouted to the other men, "Run!" A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses had just collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outset traveled at 35 miles an hour.
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3 out of 5 stars
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INTERESTING STORY - ABOUT 2x TOO LONG
- By The Louligan on 09-07-14
By: Stephen Puleo
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The Path to Power
- The Years of Lyndon Johnson
- By: Robert A. Caro
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 40 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,634
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,227
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Story5 out of 5 stars 3,217
This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Best of all Biographies
- By David C. Daggett on 12-14-13
By: Robert A. Caro
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Coolidge
- By: Amity Shlaes
- Narrated by: Terence Aselford
- Length: 21 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 929
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 819
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 811
Calvin Coolidge, president from 1923 to 1929, never rated highly in polls, and history has remembered the decade in which he served as an extravagant period predating the Great Depression. Now Amity Shlaes provides a fresh look at the 1920s and its elusive president, showing that the mid-1920s was in fact a triumphant period that established our modern way of life: The nation electrified, Americans drove their first cars, and the federal deficit was replaced with a surplus.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Silent Cal
- By Jean on 02-19-13
By: Amity Shlaes
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109 East Palace
- Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos
- By: Jennet Conant
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 288
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 196
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 195
They were told as little as possible. Their orders were to go to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and report for work at a classified Manhattan Project site, a location so covert it was known to them only by the mysterious address: 109 East Palace.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great Listen
- By John H. Davis III on 10-22-05
By: Jennet Conant
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Here Is Where
- Discovering America's Great Forgotten History
- By: Andrew Carroll
- Narrated by: Andrew Carroll
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4 out of 5 stars 60
The centerpiece of a major national campaign to indentify and preserve forgotten history, Here Is Where is acclaimed historian Andrew Carroll’s fascinating journey of discovery in which he travels to each of America’s 50 states and explores locations where remarkable individuals once lived or where the incredible or momentous occurred.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Man who Loves his Country
- By Daryl on 03-12-17
By: Andrew Carroll
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The Crusades of Cesar Chavez
- A Biography
- By: Miriam Pawel
- Narrated by: Jackson Gutierrez
- Length: 21 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 65
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
In the first comprehensive biography of Chavez, Miriam Pawel offers a searching yet empathetic portrayal. Chavez emerges here as a visionary figure with tragic flaws; a brilliant strategist who sometimes stumbled; and a canny, streetwise organizer whose pragmatism was often at odds with his elusive, soaring dreams.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Cesar Chávez
- By Ed on 09-10-18
By: Miriam Pawel
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- Hottot
- 11-07-19
Give the reader a Mucinex
I would love to finish the book, but the reader sounds like he has a head cold. I have never not finished a book, but there is a first for everything, which is sad because Centralia is my hometown. I can't finish this book.
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