Bob Wyss presents 'Black Gold: The Rise, Reign, and Fall of American Coal'

Third Place Books welcomes journalist and author Bob Wyss to our Lake Forest Park location for a conversation about his book — a social, political, economic, and environmental history of American coal mining.

"Black Gold is simply the best environmental history ever written about the coal industry and the fascinating people who ignited America's industrial revolution. [...] Written with all the insight, sympathy, horror, and humor that environmental history can evoke, Black Gold is a monumental contribution." —William (Bill) Kovarik, author and compiler of the Environmental History Timeline

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This event is free to attend. Registration is required in advance.

Coal's central role in America's history and its ongoing threats in the climate crisis.
For decades coal has been crucial to America's culture, society, and environment, an essential ingredient in driving out winter's cold, cooking meals, and lighting the dark. In the coalfields and beyond, Bob Wyss describes how this magical elixir sparked the Industrial Revolution, powered railroads, and built urban skylines, while providing home comforts for families.
Coal's history and heritage are fundamental to understanding its legacy of threats to America's well-being. As industry developed so did clashes between powerful tycoons, coal miners, and innocent families. Exploitation and avarice led to victimization, deadly violence, and ultimately the American labor movement. More recently coal has endangered American lives and safety, brought on by two centuries of carbon combustion, and here the threat remains unresolved. This is coal's most enduring legacy, and Black Gold is pivotal in helping us understand how we got to this point.

Bob Wyss is a Seattle-based writer who is a former newspaper reporter and editor and a longtime journalism professor. Black Gold, The Rise, Reign and Fall of American coal, is his fourth book. He has written more than a hundred articles that focus on his specialty in covering environmental issues for such publications as The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Audubon, Yankee, and the Huffington Post. His last book was The Man Who Built the Sierra Club, A Life of David Brower.

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is proud to serve the entire Seattle metro area. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events

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