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  • Removing Mountains: Extracting Nature and Identity in the Appalachian Coalfields
  • Sarah A. Watson
Removing Mountains: Extracting Nature and Identity in the Appalachian Coalfields Rebecca R. Scott. 2010. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 271 pp. Photos, notes, bibliography, and index. $75.00 cloth; $25.00 paper. (ISBN 978-0-8166-6599-0) (ISBN 978-0-8166-6600-3)

In the coalfields of Central Appalachia, concerns about the economic and environmental future of the region are inextricably connected to the historical legacy and contemporary practices of coal mining. It is within this complicated landscape that Rebecca R. Scott focuses her attention in the book Removing Mountains as she attempts to unpack the cultural politics of coal mining and shed light on how the process of mountaintop removal mining (MTR) has become acceptable, despite its destructive environmental consequences. To do this, Scott crafts a picture of southern West Virginia that relies upon observations of community organizations, analysis of representations, and interviews with coal miners, local residents, activists, and business people over the course of three visits (in 2000in 2004, and 2008). In doing so, she challenges readers to avoid viewing the intricacies of environmental issues in the region purely through a “jobs-verses-the-environment” paradigm and oversimplifying them. Instead, Scott attempts to add nuance to discussions about mountaintop removal mining, arguing that it must be understood as a practice ensconced within a larger constellation of political subjectivities and cultural practices within Appalachia and the United States.

To advance this argument, Scott begins the book by examining various representations of Appalachia that marginalize the region, leading mainstream America to often understand it via its regional distinction and difference. She pulls examples from pop culture, photojournalism, and news events to illustrate the continuing sway of “hillbilly” and “redneck” imagery that distills complexities found within the region to simple stereotypes and naturalizes issues like poverty and environmental destruction. Scott argues that part of the national imaginary of the region is connected to a notion of sacrifice. This, she believes, is entangled in the representations of otherness which eventually has helped cast the region into an “environmental sacrifice zone,” as per Valerie L. Kuletz (1998). A sacrifice zone is a space where the exploitation of the environment and people is understood as necessary to promote and protect larger interests of the nation. Scott argues that we can understand the process of MTR through this lens [End Page 343] because debates surrounding MTR often appeal to ideas of national security and progress, while the negative effects of MTR, like health problems and environmental destruction, are oftentimes only endured by residents living adjacent to MTR sites.

In the second chapter, Scott focuses her attention to issues of gender in Appalachia and the role of coal mining in gender construction. Scott is mainly interested in how the production and perpetuation of certain masculinities are understood through a legacy of coal mining, which in turn can create, reinforce, and stabilize the dominance of coal mining to the culture. Scott gives examples of difficulties faced by women working in the mines and interviews various men who dismiss non-coal mining jobs as not “men’s work” to illustrate the identity construction that can happen through appeals to coal mining. Scott focuses on three separate yet interwoven masculine identity constructions, “the family man,” “the tough guy,” and “the modern man,” to highlight various ways that gender norms become linked to representations of coal mining. With each of the identity constructions, Scott teases out how they help create building blocks for pro-MTR advocates to represent MTR as a natural and logical undertaking in the region.

To highlight the dominance of these gender constructions, Scott also discusses how anti-MTR activists oftentimes must perform gender identities that are in response to the hegemonic masculinity fostered by coal mining. For example, she gives details from interviews with various male anti-MTR activists, who speak of developing alternative ways to understand their role as men in the community and within their families.

In chapter five, Scott extends her exploration of issues concerning gender, representations, and ideas of sacrifice by turning her focus towards the development of historical narratives centered on the coal...

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