Whiting Award–winning historian Grace Elizabeth Hale investigates the violent Brookside coal strike in Harlan County, Kentucky, revealing the dramatic, uplifting story behind one of the most significant labor struggles of the twentieth century and how more than fifty years later it continues to influence the fight for workers’ rights today.

On a summer day in the hills of Harlan County, Kentucky, a coal miner named Jerry Johnson put down his tools and started a strike at the Brookside mine. By the time it ended a year later, miners, their wives and other supporters, and their union had invented a new kind of labor organizing and won an important victory in a decade-long class war.

Now, in They Don’t Own Us, historian Grace Elizabeth Hale shines a light on one of the most significant labor struggles of the 20th century: the Brookside coal strike of 1973–1974. In masterful prose, she recalls a forgotten time when workers fought business owners over the unwritten future of American power—and believed they could win. Coming off a decade of social upheaval that had reshaped the social fabric of the country, the workers were animated by a vision in which everyone had what they needed, including their dignity, and no one knew which side would triumph.

In vivid scenes, Hale brings to life the stories of the men and women who made this history:

• The union leader Jock Yablonski whose murder served as a catalyst for democratizing the United Mine Workers.
• Lois Scott, whose courage on the picket line mobilized the protestors into a unified group capable of meaningful action.
• Bill Worthington, a Black miner and activist who framed the strike as a fight for dignity as well safety and benefits.
• Barbara Kopple, the filmmaker who brought her camera into confrontations because it made people less likely to shoot each other.

From leveraging the national media to pressuring institutional investors, Hale powerfully argues that the Brookside strike wasn’t just a labor dispute, but a blueprint for social organizing in the post-Civil Rights era. Timely and deeply relevant, They Don’t Own Us reminds us that half a century ago, a different world was possible. The fight for workers’ rights is not just history—it is a continuing story that will shape the future of American democracy.