Coal Mining
(see also Strip Mining & Trade Unionism)
Basics
On the Web: Articles
On the Web: Specialized Sites
Coal Mining in the Gilded Age & Progressive Era.
National Coal Mining Museum (UK).
United Mine Workers of America.
US Dept. of Energy Coal Home Page.
In the Library: Articles
Boyer, Peter J. "Rescue at Quecreek," New Yorker (11/18/02):57-73. 2002 Pennsylvania mining accident & its consequences.
Kwik, Phil. "Pittston: class war in the coalfields," Against the Current (1-2/1990):7-9.
St. Clair, Jeffrey. "What a miner's life is worth," CounterPunch (12/16/05).
Yates, Michael D. "From the coal wars to the Pittston strike," Monthly Review 42,2 (6/90):25-39.
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Alinsky, Saul D. John L. Lewis: An Unauthorized Biography (NY: Putnam, 1949).
Arble, Meade. The Long Tunnel: A Coal Miner's Journal (NY: Atheneum, 1976).
Aurand, Harold W. From the Molly Maguires to the United Mine Workers: The Social Ecology of an Industrial Union, 1869-1897 (Philadelphia: Tenmple, 1971).
Benson, John. British Coal Miners in the 19th C.: A Social History (NY: Holmes & Meier, 1980).
Bowen, Lynne. Boss Whistle: The Coal Miners of Vancouver Island Remember (Lantzville BC: Oolichan, 1982).
Brown, Edwin L. & Colin A. Davis (eds.) It is Union & Liberty: Alabama Coal Miners & the UMW (Tuscaloosa: U. of Alabama, 1999).
Cohn, Samuel. When Strikes Make Sense -- & Why: Lessons from the Third Republic French Coal Miners (NY: Plenum, 1993).
Cook, Samuel R. Monacans & Miners: Native American & Coal Mining Communities in Appalachia (Lincoln: U. of Nebraska, 2000).
Corbin, David W. Life, Work & Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners, 1880-1922 (Urbana: U. of Illinois, 1981).
Dubovsky, Melvyn & Warren Van Tine. John L. Lewis: A Biography (NY: Quadrangle, 1977).
Felhaber, Elmer. The Coal Miners & You (NY: New Century, 1950).
Fishback, Price V. Soft Coal, Hard Choices: The Economic Welfare of Bituminous Coal Miners, 1890-1930 (NY: Oxford, 1992).
Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley. Coal Miners & the War (NY: Workers Library, 1942).
Giesen, Carol A.B. Coal Miners' Wives: Portraits of Endurance (Lexington: U. of Kentuck, 1995).
Hall, Tony. King Coal: Miners, Coal & Britain's Industrial Future (NY: Penguin, 1981).
Harvey, Katherine A. The Best-Dressed Miners: Life & Labor in the Maryland Coal Region, 1835-1910 (Ithaca: Cornell, 1969).
Hevener, John W. Which Side Are You On?: The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Urbana: U. of Illinois, 2002).
Horner, Arthur L. Coal & the Nation: A Square Deal for Miners (London: Communist Party, 1943).
Jencks, Clinton E. Men Underground: Working Conditions of British Coal Miners since Nationalization (San Diego CA: San Diego State U., 1969)..
Lainhart, W.S. & Others. Pneumoconiosis in Appalachian Bituminous Coal Miners (Washington: GPO, 1969).
Lewis, Ronald L. Black Coal Miners in America: Race, Class & Community Conflict, 1780-1980 (Lexington: U. of Kentucky, 1987).
McDonald, David J. & Edward A. Lynch. Coal & Unionism: A History of the American Coal Miners' Unions (Silver Springs MD: Cornelius, 1939).
Mellor, John. The Company Store: James Bryson Maclachlan & the Cape Breton Coal Miners, 1900-1925 (NY: Doubleday,1983).
Montrie, Chad. To Save the Land & People: A History of Opposition to Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia (Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina, 2003).
Nash, Michael. Conflict & Accommodation: Coal Miners, Steelworkers & Socialism, 1890-1920 (Westport CT: Greenwood, 1982).
Norris, Randall & Jean-Philippe Cypre. Women of Coal (Lexington: U. of Kentucky, 1996).
Nyden, Paul. Black Coal Miners in the US (NY: American Institute for Marxist Studies, 1974).
Page, Myra. Daughter of the Hills: A Woman's Part in the Coal Miners' Struggle [1950] (NY: Persea, 1977).
Pollitt, Harry.Coal: What the Government, the Public & the Miners Can Do to Meet the Needs (London: Communist Party, 1943).
Roberts, Ron E. John L. Lewis: Hard Labor & Wild Justice (Dubuque IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1994).
Russell, J.E. It's a Miner's Life!: A Social History of the Drumheller Valley Coal Miners (East Coulee, Alberta: Atlas Coal Mine Historical Society, 1995).
Seltzer, Curtis. Fire in the Hole: Miners & Managers in the American Coal Industry (Lexington: U. of Kentucky, 1985).
Smith, Barbara Ellen. Digging Our Own Graves: Coal Miners & the Struggle over Black Lung Disease (Philadelphia: Temple, 1987).
Smock, David R. Conflict & Control in an African Trade Union: A Study of the Nigerial Coal Miners' Union (Stanford: Hoover Institution, 2969).
Takamiya, Makoto. Union Organization & Militancy: Conclusions from a Study of the United Mine Workers, 1940-1974 (Massenheim am Glan: Hain, 1978).
Tallichet, Suzanne E. Daughters of the Mountain: Women Coal Miners in Central Appalachia (University Park PA: Penn State U., 2006).
US Public Health Service. Anthraco-Silicosis among Hard-Coal Miners (Washington: GPO, 1936).
Winterton, Jonathan & Ruth Winterton. Coal, Crisis & Conflict: The 1984-85 Miners' Strike in Yorkshire (Manchester: Manchester U., 1989).
In the Library: Fiction
DeLancey, Kiki. Coal Miner's Holiday: Stories (Louisville KY: Sarabande, 2002).
Gallie, Menna. The Small Mine (Dinas Powys: Honno, 2000). Wales.
Giardina, Denise. Storming Heaven: A Novel (NY: Norton, 1987). Battle of Blair Mountain, West Virginia, in 1921.
__________. The Unquiet Earth: A Novel (NY: Norton, 1992).
Lee, Howard B. Bloodletting in Appalachia: The Story of West ;Virginia's Mine Wars & Other Thrilling Incidents of its Coal Fields (Morgantown: West Virginia U., 1969).
Llewellyn, Richard. How Green Was My Valley (NY, 1940). Coal mining, social class & nature in Wales.
Savage, Lon. Thunder in the Mountains: The West Virginia Mine War, 1920-21 (Pittsburgh: U. of Pittsburgh, 1990).
Sigal, Clancy. Weekend in Dinlock (London: Secker & Warburg, 1960).
Sinclair, Upton. King Coal: A Novel (NY: Macmillan, 1917).
__________. The Coal War: A Sequel to "King Coal" (Boulder: Colorado Associated University, 1976). Colorado coal strike of 1913-14.
Warren, Robert Penn. The Cave (NY: Random House, 1959).
Wolk, Lauren. Those Who Favor Fire: A Novel (NY: Random House, 1998). Mines & environmental destruction in Pennsylvania.
In the Library: For Young Readers
In the Library: Poetry
In the Library: Drama
In the Library: Photography
Dotter, Earl. In Mine & Mill: A Photographic Portfolio of Coal Miners & Textile Workers (NY: Pilgrim, 1979).
Film & Video
"Between a Rock & a Hard Place" [1981], dir. Kenneth Fink, 60m. Documentary on West Virginia miners' working lives, with footage from 40s & 50s.
"Billy Elliott" [2000], dir. Stephen Daldry, 111m. In video stores.
"Black Fury" [1935], dir. Michael Curtiz, 95m.
"Brassed Off" [1996], dir. Mark Herman, 97m. In video stores.
"The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man" [1975], dir. Mimi Pickering, 140m.
"Buffalo Creek Revisited" [1985], dir. Mimi Pickering, 31m.
"Clincho: Story of a Mining Town" [1982], dir. Susan Baker, 30m.
"Coal Bucket Outlaw" [2002?], dir. Tom Hansell, 27m. From Appalshop Films.
"Coal Mining Women" [1982], dir. Elizabeth Barret, 40m.
"Germinal" [1993], dir. Claude Berri & Arlette Langmann, 158m. In video stores. 19th-c. French coal miners' strike, based on novel by Emile Zola.
"Harlan County USA" [1976], dir. Barbara Kopple, 103m. From First Run Features.
"How Green Was My Valley" [1941], dir. John Ford, ?m. In video stores.
"Justice in the Coalfields" [1995], dir. Anne Lewis, 57m. Documentary on UMWA strike against Pittston Coal.
"Matewan" [1987], dir. John Sayles, 142m. In video stores.
"The Molly Maguires" [1970], dir. Martin Ritt, 124m. In video stores.
"October Sky" [1999], dir. Joe Johnston, 153m. In video stores.
"Stripmining in Appalachia" [1973], dir. Gene Dubey, 25m.