Reviews

In a competent study of the coal-mining industry, from its origins in 13th-century England to John L. Lewis's rise to power at the United Mine Workers union in 1920, Long ( Mother Jones ) observes the role of coal in American history: the mineral's impact on the growth of industrial capitalism in the East; the developing interdependency of mining and railroads that was responsible for opening the West to settlement. Following the vicissitudes of the union movement and the economic consequences, the author also discusses the ethnic and political conflicts that regularly seized union members, resulting in violence and prolonged strikes. She conveys vividly the perilous, filthy, exhausting work of miners, often in their own words. Her account ends with the bitter and costly 1913-1914 Colorado miners' strike, terminated by federal troops, which led to the establishment of unions, government involvement in labor relations and, under Lewis, the founding of a capital-labor partnership. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Oct.)

Long presents this book as a multidimensional account of coal mining that is to be taken as a metaphor for the history of the United States up to 1920. In fact, this is a brief history of some aspects of coal mining geology, technology, and labor in the Appalachian coal fields through the 19th century, followed by a disproportionately extended narrative of some of the major coal mine strikes in the Rocky Mountain states from the early 1900s through World War I. Although based on many primary sources and secondary publications, this book falls short of the mark because of an overemphasis on relatively minor themes, less than evenhanded treatment of controversial issues, and choppy, sentimental writing. Not an essential purchase.-- Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., CUNY