Customer Reviews

Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area

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In ordering a copy of this book, I found at Amazon both a negative and a positive review. I read this book over 20 years ago. Having grown up in West Virginia, I can evaluate this book as a native. I found it one of the most valuable and truthful books I have ever read. It answered so many questions that I had had during my life in West Virginia and solved so many puzzles for me about my heritage. I have not lived in West Virginia for over 30 years, and years of education and career pursuits elsewhere have taken me away from that culture. However, whenever anyone asks me about life there, I tell them to read this book. I was saddened to read of Caudill's suicide in one of the reviews, and I plan to learn more about him and about why his life came to such a tragic end. I think he did a great favor for all Appalachians in writing Night Comes to the Cumberlands. It is a masterpiece. Whatever the tragedy of his own life, Caudill left a legacy for which we are all indebted. I absolutely disagree with the negative review at this website. Caudill spoke truth.

Harry Caudill was a native of Eastern Kentucky. His narrative of life in what has become a monument to corporate greed is sensitive, feeling, and very much to the point. The people of the Cumberland Plateau are a polyglot mixture, which Mr Caudill takes great pains to unravel. This part of the book is truly exceptional, and is enriched, not cheapened by Mr Caudill's tracing of his own ancestry back to the times of the Spanish Armada.

Mr.Caudill shows how a wholly separate culture developed from the combination of escapee indentured servant, local Native Americans, and Eastern Europeans. He expertly portrays the religious fundamentalism, outsider domination, and cynical exploitation that have held these people back from self-achievement over the generations. Mr. Caudill tells you how the land, the rivers, and human lives have been repeatedly despoiled by King Coal. He feelingly describes the squalor, poverty, ill health, and tragedies suffered by the region's people. It is not a tale for the overly sensitive, certainly.

Mr. Caudill reflects the ethos of his generation by advocating large-scale government programs to allay the region's problems, a "solution' this writer views with some skepticism. Nothwithstanding this, Mr. Caudill is a genius at showing how particular regions evolve very differently from their neighbors and what happens to those who are left behind.

I recommend the book to anyone interested in regional sociology, the South, and the Appalachian country. It is well worth the read.

Taking a quote from the book, it could well have been subtitled: From 'Root Hog or Die' to 'Can You Spare a Dollar, Please.' Although it traces the history primarily of the Eastern Kentucky Cumberland Plateau area, there are probably some similarities with the character of life in similar mountain country in parts of West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee. While it describes the history from the time of the first non-native settlers until about 1963, the book is essentially a plea for outside help for the area. The author suggests the formation of a Southern Mountain Authority to be much like the Tennessee Valley Authority. He states "The T.V.A. demonstrated the means by which many of the world's trouble spots can be rescued. It's example now offers solid assurance that, for low direct cost to the taxpayers, America can successfully attack the ills of the Southern highlands in a campaign that will eventually benefit every one of the fifty states." He does not let TVA off without criticism, though, because he blames TVA for much of the motivations that lead to increased strip mining rather than deep mining. He claims that in 1953 TVA began changing from a "benevolent government agency whose masters gave every evidence of a wise dedication to public service" into "a mammoth corporation which subordinated all other considerations to low costs and balanced budgets."

Other than the concluding plea for help, the book is depressing, and offers little hope. It traces the history from fiercely independent settlers, through company coal towns, to a severely depressed welfare state with poor schools, which threaten to perpetuate the problems indefinitely. Despite the depressing aspects, the history is well written and interesting.

In predicting the continued decline of the coal industry, the author does reasonably well, but does not foresee the formation of an organization like OPEC, and he makes an interesting, perhaps over-confident comment about nuclear power. He says, "The growing petroleum glut and the network of natural gas pipelines lessen coal's importance with each passing season. Within a few years tireless atomic reactors will provide much of the electric power now made from coal."

Upon reading this book, I was both sadden and distraught by the words that were so eloquently written on the darkened pages of my newly purchased "old" book, as my friends call them. A professor at Eastern Kentucky University suggested that I read the work, and as a native of Harlan County I have often felt pride and dismay over my home and the people that lived there with me during my youth. This book both displays powerfully the pride and dismay of the region that if written without geographical descriptors would have read as though it was written about a third-world country as an expose that are popularized by primetime news magazine programs. This book is a "MUST READ" for everyone willing to look at both the positive and negative of a capitalistic society.

Harry Caudill's "Night Comes to the Cumberlands" was written in the early 1960's. Over his life, Harry Caudill wrote many books, both fiction and non-fiction but this is his masterpiece. This enduring historical work on southern Appalachia still sells well and is the work for which he is best known.

With the benefit of 45 years of hindsight, "Night Comes to the Cumberlands" was prescient in its vision. Harry Caudill was a man of this land and knew its history, its people, its economy, its culture and its spirit. Writing for a 300-year span of time, he does not spare the rough, the crude, the greedy and the mean. He uses an historical approach combining the economic, the politicial, the sociological, the psychological and the anthropological. There is much anecdotal information that only a native like Caudill himself could have gathered from family, friends and the hills themselves.

A fine lawyer by profession, he was even better as a storyteller. If instead, he were a doctor, he would have been exceptional at diagnosis. Where some fault can be found with "Night Comes to the Cumberland" is in the prescriptive. Caudill knew as much about the problems of this part of Appalachia as anyone and could accurately describe its symptoms. However, in terms of corrective measures, his prescriptions for cure fall largely off the mark.

Solutions to the chronic, severe and long-standing problems in this region of the country are not easy and not fast. The coal counties in southern Appalachians are still losing population. Mountain top removal and valley fills, a type of coal mining just starting when Caudill completed his book are destroying tens of thousands of acres of southern hardwood forest. The landscape is permanently altered and will never recover after this type of mining has taken place.

Caudill is sometimes faulted by some critics for a reliance on certain stereotypes. However, the gentle reader of the 21st century should recall that Caudill was writing almost 50 years ago. His use of sterotypes was typical of the time. However, there is little evidence to suggest that Caudill was a prejudicial man. Instead, he had direct experience that supported his characterization of mountain people and aspects of mountain culture that in today's world come across as heavy-handed.

"Night Comes to the Cumberlands" is a great and enduring work. It is a touchstone work for any serious student or historian interested in this region of the country. Five stars.

I read this book years ago and have never forgotten it. The author knows his subject well, both from research and experience. It is factually sound and insightful but also very personal. The people who settled the hill country of eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, West Virginia, and parts of Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania and the Carolinas are often placed outside the mainstream of American society, by themselves and by others. Caudill explains very clearly their origins and history with sympathy and understanding. I didn't find the book necessarily depressing, although most people will feel at least some outrage, but I wasn't too surprised to learn that the author eventually committed suicide

When reading this book, one must keep in mind that it was written in the 1960's. Caudill's history has some inaccuracies. One such problem is the idea that the original mountain people were the "human refuse" of Europe. In actuality, many of the people who move into the mountains did so by way of Revolutionary War land grants which Caudill admits later in the story. Most of the people who fought for the Continental Army were from the middle or working class of American society--hardly the "human refuse" of Europe. This is just one instance of Caudill's inaccurate claims.

There are some good things about the book, i.e. a discussion of Indian/Anglo crossbreeding. However, I can definitely see why people from Eastern Kentucky have such a low opinion of the book. The author makes Appalachians look like animals who need to be saved from themselves--a common liberal stance of the 1960s.

The book, however, is worth reading. Just do so with a very critical eye. In addition, read a solid Kentucky history book before diving into this one in order to better separate the wheat from the chaff.

For anyone who wants to learn the history of Appalachia (i.e. Eastern Kentucky) as well as the history of coal mining in this part of the country, this book is a must. After reading this book I have spent a great deal of time reading other books on coal mining in this part of the country as well as visiting old coal towns and old coal mines. This experience, as well as discussions I have had with many locals who lived through this time, have convinced me that most of what is in this book is an accurate depiction.

There have been two criticisms of this book that I think one must respond too. Some in the academic community seem to dismiss the book because of the lack of documentation (foot notes etc.). They seem to feel that book was not well researched and that most of the book is simply the opinions of the author. I believe this is an unfair criticism. Caudill spent his entire life in this region. The book consists of his own life experiences, observations and conversations with those in this region. I don't think he needed to research the ideas in this book because he lived them. First hand experience is often times the best source for anything. Later generations intent on writing on this topic, folks who were not there and who did not live through this time in this region of the country, should probably be expected to do more research on their own before writing on these topics.

Others believe Caudill perpetuated the stereotypes of Appalachians. In defense of these critics, to some extent he does perpetuate the stereotypes of mountain folk by his harsh comments towards them, especially later in the book, and his primary focus on the negative attributes of people in this region, particularly in regards to their dependence on public assistance. However, if you take the work as a whole, it is apparent that Caudill loves this region, loves these people, and really focused on the negative aspects of many of these people because he wanted to show what had happened to a once proud and self-sufficient people. I also never got the impression that Caudill thought all people in the mountains were lazy, unmotivated and simply waiting for a hand out. Caudill also goes to great lengths to explain how many of these folks acquired these attributes and how Eastern Kentucky became a "welfare state". He did not like what many of these people had become, but he certainly presented a sympathetic view on how they got there.

Overall, I thought this was a great book. I wish it was required reading for schools because I think we owe so much to the folks who struggled in the coal mines so that we could lead a better life. It is a part of history that should not be forgotten.

This book would easily serve as an excellent history book for 8th graders living in and near south-eastern Kentucky. It doesn't read as easily as Caudill's stories and tales about the people and politics of this region, but it is valuable for anyone who wants to know about his or her history and why it happened the way it did. Sometimes sad and depressing but still factual and truthful, this book will define the area and its people for many years to come.

Much as Upton Sinclair did, when he focused the nation's attention of the conditions in the meatpacking plants in Chicago, with the publication of The Jungle, so too did Harry M. Caudill, who focused the nation's attention (well, at least a couple key leaders) on the conditions in eastern Kentucky, when he published this book in the early `60's. Caudill is a "native son"; he was born, and died in Whitesburg, KY, not that far from the Virginia line, and not far from the more famous towns of Hazard and Harlan. He comes from an excellent pedigree in terms of being "qualified" to write about this region: his ancestors first settled the region in 1792. He says that he was inspired to write the book in 1960, when he served as a commencement speaker at an 8th grade coal camp school, and noted the bitter irony of the singing of "America the Beautiful" against the backdrop of utter poverty and desolation.

Caudill chronicles the area's history over a 170-year period, from the original settlement by the white man, mainly of British and Irish stock, who came over the mountains from the coast, and advanced no further, settling in "for the duration." In many ways it was a good area to live: fertile river bottoms for crops, hills that teamed with game, and all the timber you could ask for. Despite the lack of a slave-owning aristocracy, the Civil War literally pitted brother against brother, father against son, as the natives left these valleys to fight for their respective sides. After the war, the vendettas and the feuds continued, personified by the "Hatfields vs. McCoys." Caudill takes quantitative measure of the feuds: in one county alone, between 1865 and 1915, a thousand murder indictments were made. Obviously, numerous killings never made it to the indictment stage.

Then there was the coming of "King Coal," and prosperity, around the beginning of the 1900's. Even today, based on repeated headlines, mining is a dangerous business. It was a much more deadly game then, but if you survived, in general there was the "alabaster cities" of prosperity, as Caudill says. The prosperity ended with the Great Depression, as it did for much of America. With the Cumberlands however, it never returned. During the Depression, and thanks to Prohibition, many turned to the making of moonshine to survive. The Second World War at least provided "employment" for so many of the men from the hollows. After the war, employment did not return, as it had in the 1920's, due to the "technical innovation" of strip mining, which devastated the landscape, yet provided few jobs. Caudill devotes an entire chapter chronicling the rise of the spirit-sapping welfare state, since no "work" can be provided.

As with Sinclair's book, which led to governmental entities that were responsible for inspecting meat plants, so too with Caudill's, who devoted a chapter to "The Case for a Southern Mountain Authority." His advocacy reached fruition; he gained the "ear" of President Kennedy, who introduced legislation that created the Appalachian Regional Commission in 1965. It has poured billions of dollars into the area, but with the collapse of the steel industry further north, it has had limited beneficial effects. To me, Caudill's most startling conclusion was: "Actually much of the Cumberland Plateau can best serve the nation by being submerged." (!) 50 years on, we've experienced some of the deleterious effects of the "dam culture" run amok. There is a downside to that approach also.

Overall, a very solid, well-written, lucid piece of advocacy that did focus the attention of the nation's elites on one of the regions of chronic poverty in America. 5-stars.