David A. Corbin served as a Senate staffer for twenty-six years-six years on the leadership staff of Senate majority leader Byrd and ten years on the leadership staffs of Senate majority leaders George Mitchell and Tom Daschle. He also served asSenator Byrd’s speechwriter for the last ten years of his career. Corbin is the author of The West Virginia Mine Wars: An Anthology (1990) and Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners, 1880–1920 (1981). He received his PhD in history from the University of Maryland and lives in Annapolis.