Growing Up Hard in Harlan County

"An absorbing tale told in the vernacular language of the teamsters, farmers and miners in rural, mountainous Kentucky in the early decades of this century. The narrative flows with the symmetry that comes naturally to the accomplished storyteller." -- Washington Post "The great quality of 'Red' Jones's Growing Up Hard in Harlan County is its authenticity. The reader will know that this book came from the heart and that the author experienced every sentence he relates." -- Harry M. CaudillG.C. "Red" Jones's classic memoir of growing up in rural eastern Kentucky during the Depression is a story of courage, persistence, and eventual triumph. His priceless and detailed recollections of hardscrabble farming, of the impact of Prohibition on an individualistic people, of the community-destroying mine wars of "Bloody Harlan," and of the drastic dislocations brought by World War II are essential to understanding this seminal era in Appalachian history.