6

SUNDAY

The violence of Waco and Oklahoma City endures in our consciousness, but the events have come to be understood as the works of madmen rather than legitimate political rebellion. In 1921, when 10,000 coal miners rose up against mine owners in southwestern West Virginia, the dividing line was blurrier. Such a large-scale, violent labor dispute among America’s workers frightened a nation in the throes of its first Communist witch hunt, and the unrest remains the largest armed civilian uprising on American soil since the Civil War. Former Newsweek and Los Angeles Times political reporter Robert Shogan rescues the incident from the fringes of American history with his new book, The Battle of Blair Mountain, at 5 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. (202) 364-1919. (Mike DeBonis)