The Kingdom of Coal: Work, Enterprise & Ethnic Communities in the Mine Fields

Reprint of a classic.

Considered by scholars and history buffs alike to be the best survey history of the rise and fall of the anthracite mining industry in Pennsylvania, this volume chronicles the discovery of anthracite, the building of canals to transport it to market, the era when anthracite was a major stimulus for the building of railroads and the development of the iron industry, the struggles of miners to organize, and the effects that successive waves of immigrants had on northeastern Pennsylvania. It concludes with an examination of the continuing legacy of anthracite mining in the region, and of the economic and technological factors that brought about the decline of the Kingdom of Coal. The chapters on the people of the anthracite region are particularly absorbing.

First published by University of Pennsylvania Press in 1985.

Although the authors have an academic background, Kingdom of Coal is written in an easy-to-read style.

Referenced, with an index.