This book examines the history of the Appalachian region and it's people, who for decades have worked and toiled in the extraction industries, in the process wrecking the environment as well as themselves. Now that coal is being abandoned for cheaper, cleaner sources of energy, a variety of socio-economic problems such as rampant unemployment, substance abuse, and little to no hope for a return to work has left them like a ship without a rudder. But with the development of wind and solar renewable energy, their may be a chance that the Appalachian region can return to some semblance of it's former glory.