The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell

 Annie Clements (1888-1956), known as “American Joan of Arc” – the courageous woman who started a rebellion by leading a strike against the largest copper mining company in the world.

A fight for a good life, not just a better life, comes vividly in this story. The nice city of Calumet built by one of the most profitable companies of its time is just a façade. What hides behind it, is the meager wages hardly making ends meet and the dangerous conditions under the ground. Every week someone dies or gets injured. The injustice sparks major union strike.

Houghton, Michigan: Anna Klobuchar, daughter of tall Slovenian parents, at 15 years old she already tops 6 feet. This causes her to be a subject of ridicule. “Boys laughed and pointed, calling out familiar taunts (…). Freak. Giant. Monster.” But her father encourages her, “Stand up, straight, Anna. Hold your head high. (…) That’s your strength. You are tall for a reason. When your head is high, you can see farther than anyone else.”

Lake Superior, Michigan: James MacNaughton in 1901 became the general manager of Calumet & Hecla, the world’s largest copper mining company in the so called Copper Country along the Lake Superior. The Keweenaw Peninsula holds the richest copper deposits on earth. “He was a pioneer in the field of scientific industrial management.”

“For fifty years, wave after wave of immigrants have come to the copper Country, all of them eager to work for the world’s most productive and progressive mining company.”

Anna Klobuchar, at 18, marries Joe Clements, who now works night shifts at the mine. They share a small house with three young Italian immigrant men. What miners make is a bare minimum to survive. They “can’t make enough money to get even a little ahead, what hope is there for anybody? (…) Annie comes to a decision. Somebody has to do something.”

The focus of the story is 1913 strike. The Western Federation of Miners demanding an 8-hr work-day, 5 days a week, a minimum wage, and an end to use of the one-man pneumatic drill.

I’ve read quite a few books with vivid depiction of a time period or a historical figure, and yet I have to say WOW what an impressive vivid portrayal. Not only of the fight for a good life, but also of very memorable characters, passionate driven immigrants.

Mary Harris Jones (1837-1930), known as Mother Jones, is quite a character. The union men call her the Miner’s Angel. “She left Cork (Ireland) during the Great Famine and survived a voyage across the Atlantic in a filthy, overloaded boat. (…) Odds against, she found a good man in America, and survived four pregnancies (…)” only to lose them all to yellow fever. Then lost her home and business in the Great Fire of Chicago. “So she rolled up her sleeves and went to work besides the laborers who rebuilt that city.” Her last straw “came when her own parish priest began to preach that the strikers should go back to work.” She yelled from the last pew, “I’m damned if I’ll eat shite on earth, praying for pie in the sky when I’m dead.” After that she became a union representative and a ferocious fighter for a good life, not just better.

@Facebook/BestHistoricalFiction

Release Date: August 6th, 2019