An account of the Western metal miners that includes details of their bitter struggle for unpaid wages, for industrial safety legislation, for corporate liability in the event of mine accidents and for workmen's compensation. It looks at miners in the larger context of American industrialization during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

""Hard Rock Epic makes a solid and much needed contribution to the history of both the western mining frontier and the industrial revolution."--R.E. Lingenfelter, "California History