Night Comes to the Cumberlands

By: Harry M. Caudill

Narrated by: Ed Sala

After its publication in 1962, Harry M. Caudill’s acclaimed portrait of the southern Appalachian Mountains became a rallying cry for action against the poverty plaguing the region. Here Caudill explores the area’s history, from its first settlement to the Civil War, and from the rise of coal barons to the economic despair of the 1950s and 1960s.

©2001 Anne F. Caudill (P)2012 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

“[A] masterpiece of cogent argument for specific solutions to specific problems.” ( Kirkus Reviews)

Still alarmingly relevant

My father recommended this book to me during a conversation about the Coal Wars. He'd read it in college. It's very of its time in some ways. (This book might have the greatest number of racial slurs per page of any book I've ever read outside of maybe Huck Finn. The usage isn't really intentionally malicious, but it's shocking to modern ears all the same.) Still, the book does a good job of giving a solid timeline of tragedy, explaining how the region wound up in the condition it pretty well remains in.

The most emotionally brutal segments come in the late chapters where he brings us up to the then-present day, giving us the accounts of people who were raised to do one thing for the rest of their lives--mine coal--and found time and technology passing them by, dooming them and their children to poverty and inadequate educations.

The author has a VERY distinct point of view and I imagine there are Kentucky historians who might disagree with some of his characterizations of the state's history. And I'm curious as to whether any of the reforms he called for in the end ever came to pass. But I'll be honest here: not so interested that I'm likely to pick up another book on the subject.

Review

I have several issues with Caudill’s broad-sweeping generalizations of the Appalachian people, but the book does a good job going through the history of the region and describing the impact of exploitative coal companies.

Things stay the same

A brilliant man of his era describes the roots of the Cumberland culture, the exploitation by outsiders, the lack of educational and financial resources to fight back, the fickleness of the coal market, the debilitating community structures, the goods and bads of family loyalties, the incredible state governmental systems, the physically broken, the spiritually exploited, and the successes and failures of the Kennedy-Johnson programs of Federal assistance. Caudill is fiery, discursive, and knowledgeable. His chapter on remedies is pessimistic and prescient. Not enough has happened in the past half-century to hope for improvement. I remember thinking the best thing that could happen is for everyone to move away and start over. The tales of the tangle of political corruption and arcane laws alone will probably convince you, too. Highly recommended.

great story

It was a great story almost ruined by an awful narration. I suffered through it.

Excellent, revealing history, still currently relevant

Explicitly describes how the Tennessee Valley Authority is directly responsible for government sanctioned mountain top removal and destruction of the Cumberland Plateau