Hard times are no stranger to the people of Appalachia and the South. Earlier books have documented the low wages of the textile industry, boom-and-bust cycles of coal mining, and debt peonage of Southern agriculture that have established a heritage of poverty that endures. This book is a unique collection of essays by people who are actively involved in the efforts to challenge economic injustice in these regions and to empower the residents to build democratic alternatives.

In the series Labor and Social Change, edited by Paula Rayman and Carmen Sirianni.

John Gaventa is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a staff member of the Highlander Research and Education Center.

Barbara Ellen Smith is former Research Coordinator of the Southeast Women's Employment Coalition and the author of Digging Our Own Graves: Coal Miners and the Struggle over Black Lung Disease (Temple).

Alex Willingham is Research Director of the Southern Regional Council.