Libby, Montana: Asbestos and the Deadly Silence of an American Corporation [Paperback]

Andrea Peacock (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

A brilliant book by a brilliant reporter—one of the most important books I’ve read in years. -- Terry Tempest Williams, author of Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert

A testament to the strength of ordinary citizens acting in the "common good." -- Jim Hightower

A tip of the hat to Andrea Peacock who ... brought this lethal ... story into the light of day. -- Charles Bowden, author of Blood Orchid

Skillfully exposes a true axis of evil and its dire human effects ... a "must read" for people of conscience. -- Jim Harrison

This is a story almost too terrible to read, yet too terrible to put down. -- Rick Bass, author of The Book of Yaak

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Johnson Books (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555663192
• ISBN-13: 978-1555663193
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #372,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Portraits of Grief, Montana style, October 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Libby, Montana: Asbestos and the Deadly Silence of an American Corporation (Paperback)

Andrea Peacock flirted with a career in law before turning her attention fulltime to journalism. So it makes sense that the author builds the case against WR Grace with the legal precision of a prosecutor hanging criminals out to dry. But Peacock's first book "Libby, Montana" is no mere amicus brief; it's a complex tale of heartbreak. Her hard-hitting expose concerns the nature of corporate greed, and Peacock makes sure to show how collusion between big business and local government can destroy the lives of ordinary people. For decades WR Grace, the same corporation featured in "A Civil Action," supplied the world with toxic asbestos-laden materials from its mine in remote northwest Montana. For 30 years, the company ignored signs that the dust from its operations was killing miners and their kin; now the record has come back to haunt Grace. Peacock overcomes the challenges inherent in exposing environmental crime, putting a human face on both sides of this fascinating story, making her case with rare humanity. A worthy read -- and if you don't believe me, Peacock has blurbs from Peter Matthiessen, Terry Tempest Williams, Jim Hightower and Jim Harrison, who all agree this book is too good, too important to be ignored.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More true than true and worse than anyone could believe!, February 28, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Libby, Montana: Asbestos and the Deadly Silence of an American Corporation (Paperback)

I was born in this town, Libby, Montana. Eventhough I grew up eighteen miles away in Troy, I knew most of the families mentioned in the book. My high school field trip was a day trip to the mine, the dry processing plant, the expansion plant, the loading docks. All through junior high and high school, we had track meets next to the railroad tracks where the trains were loaded with the ore. What she says in her book is true, no one told anyone that the ore was harmful, or even had asbestos in it. No one said a word, and if anyone asked, they were told it was "nuisance dust." It was such a cover-up that I had to read the Seattle PI account twice before I believed it.
I applied for a job at the mine when I went to college. That was thirty years ago. If I had gotten that job, chances are I would be dead, just like my father. Dad never worked at the mine, but he drove by it several times a week to maintain some radio equipment on top of the mountain. Several times a week for twenty-six years and he died of Mesothelioma.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars American Nightmare, September 17, 2003

By 

Frederick G. Dillen (Gloucester, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Libby, Montana: Asbestos and the Deadly Silence of an American Corporation (Paperback)

Besides bringing us, intimately and palpably, news of horrific corporate behavior, Peacock makes the place and life of Libby, Montana into a vision of America that transcends asbestos. It is a vision of geologic glory and frontier humanity that is as true as blood and stone and that is also the founding dream of American consciousness. In such a vision, in a town like Libby, when people who can make money from asbestos, people who might be you and I at whatever distance, when we, even if only in acquiescence, when we kill unknowing souls for profit for generation after generation, when that happens, the best of the American dream flows away from us like a river irredeemably polluted.

Peacock has given us a mirror on the triumphant nightmare of American greed. "Libby, Montana" is a perfectly heartbreaking book.