On a dusty main street, a sheriff backed by townspeople faced down a gang of hired gunslingers. A few minutes later, 10 men were dead or dying, and several more suffered gunshot wounds. Surprisingly, the scene was the West Virginia mining town of Matewan, and the year was 1920. By the end of the 19th century, Ian Hernon argues, the East was more dangerous than the Wild West. In telling the story, Hernon frames it in the context of an era marked by labor unrest, racial strife, and Mafia activity.