Van Lear, Kentucky, may be one of the most-celebrated coal-mining towns in the Southern Appalachians.

Created by Consolidation Coal Co., it grew so big, so quickly, that one newspaperman called it "the overnight city," but its status and stature faded quickly after Consolidation sold its interest in the town in the 1940s.

The Overnight City: The Life and Times and Van Lear, Kentucky, 1908-1947 uses contemporary newspaper accounts to create a vivid portrait of a proud and self-reliant community from the days before World War I through Prohibition and the Great Depression...