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The western Pennsylvania oil country is the historic area where the American oil industry was founded. It spawned Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller's fortune, and perhaps even the Sherman antitrust laws, as well as generations of labor strife. It is, therefore, one of the cradles of discontent in contemporary America.In Thunder on the Mountain, a "stunning period tale" (Publishers Weekly), Poyer revisits the terrible winter of 1936 when a strike to organize the workers in the Thunder Oil show more Company is called after a refinery disaster exposes the company's contempt for workers' safety. W. T. "Kid Nitro" Halvorsen, a young boxer and well shooter, becomes a leader of the strike against Daniel Thunner's beloved family company. The strike draws national attention, which increases with the arrival of ruthless strikebreaker Pearl Deatherage and of determined CIO organizer Doris Gurley Golden. As the unrest spreads in scale and fury, Halvorsen and Thunner must put their ideas of honor and morality to the test. In a high-stakes game of one-upmanship and violence, who will prove king of the mountain?
Packed with insight, vivid characters, and a burning concern for justice, Thunder on the Mountain is a tough, penetrating, violent novel in the tradition of Jack London, John Steinbeck, E. L. Doctorow, and Mary Lee Settle—and, now, David Poyer.
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46+ Works 2,452 Members
David Poyer, 1949 - Writer David Poyer was born in DuBois, Pennsylvania, in 1949, and grew up in the towns of Brockway, Emlenton, and Bradford in western Pennsylvania. He graduated from high school and then attended the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating in 1971. He received a master's degree from George Washington University. Poyer's show more active and reserve service have included sea duty in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Arctic, Caribbean, and Pacific and shore duty at the Pentagon, as well as other commands. He has served on the USS Bowen, Comphibron Eight, USS Charleston, USS Antrim, Surface Warfare Development Group, U.S. Atlantic Command and as Captain for the U.S. Naval Reserve at Joint Forces Command. Poyer has taught or lectured at Annapolis, Flagler College, University of Pittsburgh, Old Dominion University, the Armed Forces Staff College, and the University of North Florida. He's been a guest on PBS's "Writer to Writer" series and on Voice of America. Poyer has written the Navy novels "The Med," "The Gulf," "The Circle," "The Passage," and "Tomahawk." He has also written the historical thriller "The Only Thing to Fear" and the comic novel of Annapolis "The Return of Philo T. McGiffin." "Thunder on the Mountain" is a historical novel set in 1936; and set in the Pennsylvania hills, are the titles "The Dead of Winter," "Winter in the Heart" and "As the Wolf Loves Winter." (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Thunder on the Mountain
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