Why read To Live Here, You Have to Fight?

Book cover of To Live Here, You Have to Fight: How Women Led Appalachian Movements for Social Justice

Book description

Launched in 1964, the War on Poverty quickly took aim at the coalfields of southern Appalachia. There, the federal government found unexpected allies among working-class white women devoted to a local tradition of citizen caregiving and seasoned by decades of activism and community service.

Jessica Wilkerson tells their stories within…

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Why read it?

1 author picked To Live Here, You Have to Fight as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Melissa Estes Blair

Author

Wilkerson finds feminists everywhere in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, which makes this the most geographically unexpected book on this list. By showing how women were central to many social justice movements – not only feminism but environmental justice, health care, and welfare rights – Wilkerson shows us how women truly did lead in the 1970s, in parts of the country where stereotypes suggest they shouldn’t be active at all.

From Melissa's list on The best books on U.S. grassroots feminism.