Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area

Harry M. Caudill

• Publisher: Rare Treasure Editions
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9798907971851
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Politics & International Relations

''Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area'' is a seminal 1963 non-fiction book written by American author and historian Harry M. Caudill. The book is widely credited with bringing intense national attention to the systemic poverty and ecological devastation in the Appalachian region, ultimately serving as a major catalyst for the federal government's War on Poverty. Caudill details how Eastern Kentucky and the surrounding Cumberland Plateau progressed from a rich wilderness settled by independent pioneers to a region entirely dependent on the volatile coal industry. The narrative chronicles how outside corporate interests purchased vast mineral rights—often exploiting local landowners—and extracted billions of dollars in wealth while leaving behind minimal infrastructure or tax revenue. The book was one of the earliest high-profile critiques of mechanized mining practices, specifically the rise of strip mining and auger mining, which tore apart hillsides, polluted waterways, and permanently altered the landscape. Caudill describes a cycle of dependency, crumbling schools, lack of economic diversity, and the physical toll that black lung disease and industrial accidents took on generations of miners. After reading the book, President John F. Kennedy—and later President Lyndon B. Johnson—focused federal resources on Appalachia, leading directly to the creation of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). Published alongside works like Michael Harrington's The Other America, it challenged the mid-20th-century myth that all of America was sharing equally in post-WWII economic prosperity.

Table of contents

• Night Comes to the Cumberlands
• DEDICATION
• Foreword
• PART I — The Wilderness Seed
• PART IV — Boom and Bust
• PART V — The Second Boom
• PART VII — The Purple Mountain Majesties
• PART VIII — The Future