As the World Turns: The Melodrama of Harry Caudill

There is much to admire about Harry CaudilFs work. Throughout his life he has raised an angry and eloquent voice against the coal industry's inhumane health and safety record, rape of the land, and insensitivity to people's needs. He was among the first to speak of Appalachia as a colony manipulated to serve outside interests, and he has long championed a fair and equitable severance tax on coal. Caudill has played a crucial role in bringing the region's economic and political problems into national consciousness. Personally, CaudilFs Night Comes to the Cumberlands1 and My Land Is Dying2 helped provoke and shape my initial awareness of the extent of economic exploitation and environmental destruction in Appalachia. For these reasons, it is difficult for me to take issue with Harry Caudill. I have wanted to rush to his defense when he has come under attack by coal industry officials and politicians. For a number of years I have glossed over parts of CaudilFs works and words that troubled me - slipshod and poorly documented research, striking inconsistencies in his thought, his genetic theory of Appalachian development, his cultural elitism, his failure to acknowledge the extent of citizen resistance in the mountains. But it has become increasingly difficult for me to ignore these aspects of CaudilFs works since such problems have appeared more and more frequently in his writing and interviews over the last decade. CaudilFs anger now appears to be directed more toward the victims than the victimizers in Appalachia. Also disturbing is CaudilFs apparent belief that he should be above criticism. He seems unwilling to consider opposing evidence and to engage in an open and honest debate with his critics. He recently dismissed a critic who had documented factual errors in one of his books by proclaiming that "even Darwin and the Holy Bible are under attack."3 I approached CaudilFs new book with some enthusiasm.* In Theirs Be the Power, Caudill is returning to an old and familiar theme - the power of Author's note: Thanks to Jim Foster and Sue Kobak for their insightful comments, many of