Local historians Joanna Sampson and Richard Meyers bring to life the northern Colorado coal fields of Serene, Colorado, of the 1920s. Beginning with the exploitation of labor by the first capitalists and the subsequent rise of labor unions, Sampson and Meyers take their audience through: the stresses and misuse of power that led to a strike for better pay and better working conditions; the role of Mother Jones and local labor leaders of the day in shaping the debate; the clashes with the scabs brought in by coal-field owner John D. Rockefeller; and the response of the Colorado State troopers, engaged in this struggle at the insistence of Rockefeller, that left five miners dead. This story of the coal miners fight for control over the conditions of their lives touches on issues that still exist in today's mining industry.