History Professor Kevin Kenny, author of the book Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, took part in Mining History Week in Pennsylvania last week. The week’s events focused on the victims of the Knox Mine Disaster of January 22, 1959, as well as the tens of thousands of mineworkers–men and boys–who toiled, were injured, suffered black lung disease, or died in the area’s anthracite mines. Kenny delivered the Msgr. John J. Curran Memorial Lecture titled “Who Were the Molly Maguires and Why Were They Important to Anthracite History?” to an audience of several hundred at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre. His lecture examined the history of immigration, labor, and violence in the Pennsylvania anthracite region in the 19th century.