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Carla Rising

A true story of resistance.

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Tag Archives: Republican

The Monster Spreads Debt

Carla Rising Posted on November 4, 2016 by Topper_SherwoodNovember 5, 2016

I’ve been thinking about the entertainment world’s fascination with zombies, and wondering what it means. It’s long been said that the first zombie film was really about shopping and consumerism. No surprise, then, that zombies are going global just as … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, History writing, Media Commentary, Political Crime, Poverty | Tagged Battle of Blair Mountain, Carla Rising, debt, Donald Trump, financial debt, Labor history, Political Corruption, political crime, poverty, Republican, Topper Sherwood, US intervention | Leave a reply

Readings

Greenland Coming Under New Management

Carla Rising Posted on March 18, 2025 by Topper_SherwoodMay 8, 2025

‘Maw & Paw Just Love to see that Veejay Dance’ By Wiley Comstock Not long ago, this writer was visiting a friend in Greenland — which is to say Greenland County, USA, along the Great Oh River. My visit coincided … Continue reading →

Posted in Carla Rising, Fascism, History writing, Journalism, land development, Media Commentary, US history | Leave a reply

War & Revolution: A History Lesson

Carla Rising Posted on December 5, 2024 by Topper_SherwoodDecember 5, 2024

Why I Study Historic Creative Activists BERLIN 15. (September 15, 2019) — Today’s news (more targeting of Iran by American militarists) reminds me of events between 1776 and ’95, when France’s king tried to borrow and buy his way out … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Commentary | Tagged 20th Century, Anti-war activism, European History, Hitler, Napoleon, Stalin, Topper Sherwood, War and Revolution | Leave a reply

Growing risk to writers, everywhere

Carla Rising avatarPosted on November 12, 2023 by Topper_SherwoodNovember 12, 2023

Strong media organizations that are confident
in the righteousness
of their mission
do not need to apply ‘loyalty tests,’ nor

“offer up their employees
as sacrifices to an angry mob.
“

(From the linked story, found in today’s New Yorker.)

Hallelujah: Documentation of Amazon’s … rude behavior…. ;-)

Carla Rising avatarPosted on September 27, 2023 by Topper_SherwoodNovember 21, 2023  

This week, the US Federal Trade Commission and 17 states sued Amazon, attacking it as the monopoly power that we’ve watched destroy American print media (intellectual work) since the mid-1990s.

With this lawsuit, the F.T.C. joins government agencies around the world that are trying to limit Amazon’s influence on our countless local economies. The trend also has been called Big Data’s “domination of the Internet” toward the “Walmart-ization” (privatized centralization) of the global marketplace for human production and distribution of local/domestic goods and services.

First the publishing industry — and then others, including media (film/TV) producers: We are all (suddenly, confoundingly) workers for Amazon (or Google, or Netflix). I hope a “new-and-improved” reformed US Justice- and Trade-Fairness system will establish this day as one of global celebration, in the future.

In the mean time, we want to chorus: “Hurrah! At last!”

Video from More Perfect Union

Posted in Media Commentary | Leave a reply
link

Laurie Anderson on Trump

Carla Rising Posted on November 24, 2020 by Topper_SherwoodNovember 24, 2020

Some years ago, here in Berlin, I had the chance to ask a question of American performance artist Laurie Anderson. This was in March 2017, just after Donald Trump took office as the American president. Ms. Anderson had been telling … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Commentary | Leave a reply

‘Carla Rising’ out-of-print

Carla Rising Posted on November 24, 2020 by Topper_SherwoodNovember 24, 2020

NOVEMBER 24, 2020 — Market conditions in the United States make it impossible for a small ‘niche’ publisher to produce books at a cost and profit that make it worth trying. Once shipping thousands of books per year — titles … Continue reading →

Posted in Carla Rising, Economics, History writing, Intellectual Labor, Media Commentary, Publishing, Topper Sherwood | Leave a reply

Trump & co. criminalizing history education

Carla Rising Posted on September 18, 2020 by Topper_SherwoodSeptember 18, 2020

Reading about events in the United States today, I’m reminded of 1998, when I was working very hard to sell John Alexander Williams’ “West Virginia: A History for Beginners” to schools in the state of West Virginia. As the book’s publisher … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Commentary | Tagged history education, History writing, West Virginia: A History for Beginners | Leave a reply

Bill Moyers and Heather Cox Richardson

Carla Rising Posted on August 7, 2020 by Topper_SherwoodAugust 7, 2020

A link to Bill Moyers interviewing Heather Cox RIchardson about her new American book, “How the South Won the Civil War.”

Continue reading →
Posted in Media Commentary | Leave a reply

In this Age of Viral Tyranny….*

Carla Rising Posted on April 7, 2020 by Topper_SherwoodDecember 5, 2024

The Revolution Will Not Be Shared I In this age of Trumpish tyrants, too many of us live and work in places where someone else — boss or client — is neither partner nor comrade, but our “king.” Where we’re … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Commentary, Resistance, Sustainability, Writing & Publishing | Tagged poetry, technology and society | Leave a reply

Kudos to a Bridge-Builder

Carla Rising Posted on March 25, 2020 by Topper_SherwoodApril 17, 2020

I just received a message from a longtime Berlin pal, nonfiction filmmaker Rick Minnich, who always seems to be working on something cool and interesting. Rick has lost a friend of his own in March 2020, a 100-year-old fellow in … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Commentary | Tagged World War II

What People Are Saying...

"Carla Rising will lure many readers into imagining what it would have been like to have been part of the struggles (for change)....likely to engage both your thoughts about history and your emotions about this intense conflict."
— Paul Nyden, Charleston (WV) Gazette-Mail

"Very strong first novel from Topper Sherwood.... Sherwood's writing gave me a real feel for the landscape of West Virginia, as well as the landscape of the times. I'll eagerly read anything else he writes."
— Catherine in L.A.

"Carla Rising left me entertained and curious — so curious, in fact, that I did a lot more research into the U.S. mine wars; the book captured the time period very well."
— Forbes writer Ken Silverstein

"I read Carla Rising twice. Enjoyed it even more the second time."
— John Alexander Williams

"...a propulsive, compelling and readable drama."
— Doug Imbrogno
Charleston Gazette-Mail

"Anyone who likes a good mystery, thriller, historical drama, or just a plain fantastic read...buy this book. ...(It) deserves to be a major motion picture."
— Paula Grgich-Warke

"I can think of five friends who should read Carla Rising."

"What an adventure!"

"I just finished reading this - couldn't put it down until I did.... It's really, really good!"
— Joan C.

"What a deeply engrossing novel, Topper! You fleshed out the characters until I could visualize each one. The plot was heart-pounding, like a thriller. ...The research was astounding and made me want to dig deeper. ...Kudos, Topper, to a novel I will gladly suggest to others."
— Lynne Sandy

"A Novel Worth Reading"
— Paul Epstein

"(Topper Sherwood) has a vast reservoir of original ideas...with very worthy motives as his aim."
— Hallene M. Dick

"A tense book, skillfully evoking the Appalachian landscape and the miners' hopes of bettering their lives."
— John Borland

"(Carla Rising) has captured my heart. I cannot wait to continue reading today. ...I love how you describe in detail the characters' feelings, senses and surroundings. I feel like I'm there. The book definitely draws me in...."
— R.M.

"Carla Rising is a DAMN FINE read."
— Fish!

“I gave Carla Rising to a good friend here. She talked to me a long time about it today. She loved it, and whizzed through it in less than 36 hours. Could not stop reading. … She gets it. All of it.”
— Hilary Chiz

"Hell of a great read! I hope everyone reads this book."
— Ren Parziale

Events/Anniversaries

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‘Carla’ unavailable….

CarlaFrontCoverClick here for details….

Author’s Statement

As a journalist in the 1990s, I enjoyed researching articles on the “West Virginia Mine Wars” of 1890-1923 – although these labor battles are not easy stories to tell.

To me, the traditional “heroes vs villains” story – even the “poor underclass vs. wealthy oppressors” – wasn’t enough. Both sides could claim “victory,” for example, following the 1921 “Battle of Blair Mountain.” And both sides clearly suffered abysmal defeats in these conflicts which continue to polarize the region a century later.

In writing Carla Rising, my first novel, I was extremely mindful of parallels/allegories for today’s audience. Most notably perhaps: the rise of oligarchs, like my Sheriff Riley Gore, in local/national politics around the world today.

The political domination of energy companies of that time reminded me of the rise of “Big Data” today — of Amazon’s and Google’s effect on publishing, and media-making, especially in the United States. In a word, I personalized the plight of coal miners whose lives and work were cheapened by their employers – much in the same way that Internet firms have cheapened conscientious and time-consuming work of research and writing for news media, for books and nonfiction broadcasts.

Another allegory: During years of studying and publishing about these events of 1921, I was struck by the collaboration between the coal company’s private police/military force and public officials. Federal and state officials did not challenge the presence of a private company’s paramilitary force playing a role in the mining conflict – similar to Blackwater’s role in Iraq or, perhaps, private prisons in today’s United States.

Carla Rising also presents the split on the Left during that time – a split that resulted in the conscious purge of leftists during and after the New Deal, including the black-listing of Socialists and Communist Party members. After the 1980-88 administrations of Ronald Reagan (who participated in black-listing in Hollywood), it was easy to see how ‘mainstream’ liberals and media (the “free press”) generally were called upon to fill the void left by yesterday’s “reds.” It has also become easy to see the evolution of anti-“liberal”, anti-democratic demonization that continues today (2017), part of what has long been moving the United States further and further to the right.

Some of Carla Rising‘s characters represent the vulnerable middle class – most notably, Mary Rising, Carla’s mother – caught in the middle and pressured to take sides in an increasingly polarized political and social environment.

So, there are plenty of modern allegories to find in Carla Rising. I hope you enjoy it.

– Topper Sherwood,
Berlin, 2017

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