History of coal miners

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Coal loader in Appalachia, 1946

Coal miners have been hard at work for centuries, but they became increasingly important in the Industrial revolution when coal was used to fuel stationary and locomotive engines and heat buildings. Owing to coals strategic role as a primary fuel, coal miners have figured strongly in political movements. From the late 19th century down to the through to the early twenty-first century coal miners in many countries have been a frequent presence in industrial disputes with the management of coal mining enterprises. Coal miners politics whilst complex have frequently been radical with a strong leaning towards far-left political views. A number of radical far-left political movements have had the support of both coal miners themselves and their trade unions.


From the mis-19th century onward, coal miners have often built strong connections with the organized labour movement, and sometimes as well with radical political movements. Coal miners were among the first groups of industrial workers to collectively organise in protection of both working and social conditions in their communities. Beginning in the 19th Century, and continuing through the 20th Coal Miners unions became powerful in many countries, the miners becoming leaders of Left or Socialist movements (as in Britain, Poland, Japan, Canada, Chile and (in the 1930s) in the U.S.)[1][2][3][4][5][6] Historians report that, "From the 1880's through the end of the twentieth century, coal miners across the world became one of the most militant segments of the working class in the industrialized world."[7]

The statistics show that from 1889 to 1921 British miners struck between 2 and 3 times more frequently than any other group of workers.[8] Some isolated coal fields had long traditions of militancy and violence; those in Scotland were especially strike-prone.[9] Coal miners formed the core of the political left wing of the Labour Party and the British Communist party.

In Germany, the coal miners demonstrated their militancy by large-scale strikes in 1889, 1905 and 1912. However in political terms the German miners were middle-of-the-road and not especially radical. One reason was the formation of different unions—Socialist, liberal, radical and Polish—that seldom cooperated.[10]

In British Columbia, Canada, the coal miners were "independent, tough, and proud" and became "among the most radical and militant labourers in an extremely polarized province." They were the core of the socialist movement; their strikes were frequent, long and bitter.[11]

In Chile in the 1930s and 1940s, the miners supported the Communist Party as part of a cross-class alliance that won the presidency in 1938, 1942 and 1946. The long run political gains were illusory, as a major strike in 1947 was repressed by the military on orders of the president the miners had elected.[12]

In East Europe the coal miners were most politicized element in society after 1945. They were the primary support group for the Communist governments, and were heavily subsidized. Poland's miners were also a critical supporter of the anti-Communist Solidarity movement of the 1980s.[13]

Great Britain[edit]

British coalfields in the nineteenth century.

Pre 1900[edit]


After 1790 output soared, reaching 16 million long tons by 1815. By 1830 this had risen to over 30 million tons[14] The miners, less menaced by imported labour or machines than were the textile workers, had begun to form trade unions and fight their battle for control against the coal owners and royalty-lessees. In South Wales, the miners showed a high degree of solidarity. They lived in isolated villages where the miners comprised the great majority of workers. There was a high degree of equality in life style; combined with an evangelical religious style based on Methodism this led to an ideology of equalitarianism. They forged a "community of solidarity" - under the leadership of the Miners Federation. The union supported first the Liberal Party, then after 1918 Labour, with some Communist Party activism at the fringes.[15]

20th century[edit]

As well as energy supply, coal became a very political issue, due to conditions under which colliers worked. Their dominance in remote villages heightened political and industrial solidarily, colliery owners. Much of the 'old Left' of British politics can trace its origins to coal-mining areas, with the main labour union being the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, founded in 1888. The MFGB claimed 600,000 members in 1908. (The MFGB later became the more centralised National Union of Mineworkers).

The national coal strike of 1912 was the first national strike by coal miners in Britain. Its main goal of securing a minimum wage. After a million men had walked out for 37 days the government intervened and ended the strike by passing a minimum wage law.[16]


Total coal output in Britain had been falling since 1914.[17]

  • The fall in coal prices resulting from the re-entry in 1925 of Germany to the international coal market by exporting "free coal" to France and Italy as part of their reparations for the First World War.
  • The reintroduction of the gold standard in 1925 made the British pound too strong for effective exporting to take place from Britain, and also (because of the economic processes involved in maintaining a strong currency) raised interest rates, hurting all businesses.
  • Mine owners wanted to normalise profits even during times of economic instability, which often took the form of wage reductions for miners in their employ. Coupled with the prospect of longer working hours, the industry was thrown into disarray.
  • The miners' pay had gone down from £6.00 to £3.90 in the space of seven years.

Mine owners announced their intention to reduce miners' wages. The MFGB rejected the terms: "Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day." The TUC responded to this news by promising to support the miners in their dispute. The Conservative government under Stanley Baldwin decided to intervene, declaring that they would provide a nine-month subsidy to maintain the miners' wages and that a Royal Commission under the chairmanship of Sir Herbert Samuel would look into the problems of the mining industry.

This decision became known as "Red Friday" because it was seen as a victory for working-class solidarity and Socialism. In practice, the subsidy gave the mine owners and the government time to prepare for a major labour dispute. Herbert Smith (a leader of the Miners' Federation) said of this event: "We have no need to glorify about victory. It is only an armistice."

The Samuel Commission published a report on 10 March 1926 recommending that in the future, national agreements, the nationalisation of royalties and sweeping reorganisation and improvement should be considered for the mining industry.[18] It also recommended a reduction by 13.5% of miners' wages along with the withdrawal of the government subsidy.[19] Two weeks later, the prime minister announced that the government would accept the report provided other parties also did.[20] A previous royal commission had recommended nationalisation a few years earlier to deal with the problems of productivity and profitability in the industry, but Lloyd George, then prime minister, had rejected its report.

After the Samuel Commission's report, the mine owners declared that, on penalty of lock out from 1 May, miners would have to accept new terms of employment that included lengthening the work day and reducing wages between 10% and 25%, depending on various factors. The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) refused the wage reduction and regional negotiation.

The 1926 United Kingdom general strike was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 May 1926 to 13 May 1926. It was called by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions for 800,000 locked-out coal miners. Some 1.7 million workers went out, especially in transport and heavy industry. The government was prepared and enlisted middle class volunteers to maintain essential services. There was little violence and the TUC gave up in defeat. The miners gained nothing. In the long run, there was little impact on trade-union activity or industrial relations.[21]

The miners maintained resistance for a few months before being forced by their own economic needs to return to the mines. By the end of November most miners were back at work. However, many remained unemployed for many years. Those that were employed were forced to accept longer hours, lower wages, and district wage agreements. The strikers felt as though they had achieved nothing. The effect on the British coal-mining industry was profound. By the late 1930s, employment in mining had fallen by more than one-third from its pre-strike peak of 1.2 million miners, but productivity had rebounded from under 200 tons produced per miner to over 300 tons by the outbreak in 1939 of the Second World War.[22]

Since 1945[edit]

All the coal mines in Britain were purchased by the government in 1947 and put under the control of the National Coal Board (NCB). The industry declined steadily despite protests such as the UK miners' strike (1984-1985). The 1980s and 1990s saw much change in the coal industry, with privatisation, the industry contracting, in some areas quite drastically. Many pits were considered uneconomic[23] to work at then current wage rates compared to cheap North Sea oil and gas, and in comparison to subsidy levels in Europe.

The NCB employed over 700,000 people in 1950 and 634,000 in 1960, but successive governments reduced the size of the industry by closing geographically impaired or low productivity pits. Closures were originally concentrated in Scotland, but then moved into North East England, Lancashire, and South Wales in the 1970s. Closures in all coalfields began in the 1980s as demand for British coal was weakened by large subsidies that other European governments gave to their coal industries (West Germany subsidised coal by four times as much and France by three times as much in 1984) and the availability of lower cost, often open-cast, coal mined in Australia, Colombia, Poland and the United States.

The NCB saw three major national strikes. The 1972 and 1974 strikes were both over pay and both saw success for the National Union of Mineworkers. The miners' strike of 1984–1985 ended in victory for the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher and is still bitterly resented in some parts of Britain that suffered from the aftermath of pit closures. In popular culture this is reflected in Billy Elliot the Musical, a hit play based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot.

British Coal (the new name for the national Coal Board), was privatised by selling off a large number of pits to private concerns through the mid-1990s. Because of exhausted seams and high prices the mining industry disappeared almost completely, despite the militant protests of some miners.[24]

In 2008, the South Wales Valleys last deep pit mine closed with the loss of 120 jobs. The coal was exhausted.[25] However, coal is still mined at a number of deep pits in the Midlands and the North, and is extracted at several very large opencast pits in South Wales and elsewhere.

West Europe[edit]



Belgium took the lead in the industrial revolution on the continent, and began large scale coal mining operations by the 1820s using British methods. Industrialization took place in Wallonia (French speaking southern Belgium), starting in the middle of the 1820s, and especially after 1830. The availability of cheap coal was a main factor that attracted entrepreneurs. Numerous works comprising coke blast furnaces as well as puddling and rolling mills were built in the coal mining areas around Liège and Charleroi. The leading entrepreneur was a transplanted Englishman John Cockerill. His factories at Seraing integrated all stages of production, from engineering to the supply of raw materials, as early as 1825. By 1830 when iron became important the Belgium coal industry had long been established, and used steam-engines for pumping. Coal was sold to local mills and railways as well as to France and Prussia.[26]


The first important German mines appeared in the 1750s, in the valleys of the rivers Ruhr, Inde and Wurm where coal seams outcropped and horizontal adit mining was possible. After 1815 entrepreneurs in Belgium launched the Industrial revolution on the Continent by opening mines and associated iron smelters. In Germany (Prussia), the Ruhr Area coalfields opened in the 1830s. Railroads were built around 1850 and numerous small industrial centres sprang up, focused on ironworks, using local coal. The average output of a mine in 1850 was about 8,500 short tons; its employment about 64. By 1900, the average mine's output had risen to 280,000 and the employment to about 1,400.[27] The miners in the German areas were divided by ethnicity (with Germans and Poles), by religion (Protestants and Catholics) and by politics (Socialist, liberal and Communist). Mobility in and out of the mining camps to nearby industrial areas was high. The miners split into several unions, with an affiliation to a political party. As a result the socialist union (affiliated with the Social Democratic Party) competed with Catholic and Communist unions until 1933, when the Nazis took over all of them. After 1945 the socialists came to the fore.[28]

United States[edit]

Coal mining in the 19th century[edit]

Miners in remote coal camps were often dependent upon the company store, a store that miners had to use because they were often paid only in company scrip or coal scrip, redeemable at the store, which often charged higher prices than other stores. Many miner's homes were also owned by the mines. Although there were company towns that raised the prices of all goods and made eviction a constant threat, these conditions were not the norm for all coal towns—some owners were paternalistic and others were exploitative.[29]

A small local mine in West Virginia in 1908.

Social Structure[edit]

Coal was typically mined in remote areas, often mountainous. The miners lived in crude housing provided at low cost by the companies, and shopped in company stores. There were few amenities, and few alternative industries besides the railroads and saloons. The anthracite mines of Pennsylvania were owned by large railroads, and managed by bureaucrats. Bituminous mines were locally owned. The social system revolved not so much on occupation (nearly everyone was an blue collar workers with similar incomes) but on ethnicity. Welsh and English miners had the highest prestige and the best jobs, followed by the Irish.[30] At a lower status stood recent immigrants from Italy and Eastern Europe; recent arrivals from the Appalachian hills were lower status. The ethnic groups would stick together, seldom mingling. Blacks were sometimes brought in as strike breakers. There was little machinery apart from the railroad. Before mechanization began about 1910 the miners relied on brute force, pick-axe, hand drills and dynamite to smash lumps of coal out of the wall, and shovel them into mule-drawn carts that hauled it to the weighing station, and the railroad cars. The culture was heavily masculine, with strength, virility, and physical courage held in high regard. Boxing was the favored sport. Opportunities for women were strictly limited, until textile companies after 1900 started opening small factories in the larger coal towns to employ women. Religion was in high regard, as each group was fiercely loyal to its denomination. Schooling was limited. The aspiration of the boys was to get a job helping around the mines until they were old enough to work underground as a "real" miner.[31][32]

Segundo, Colorado was a company town where the CF&I coal company housed its workers. It offered adequate housing and promoted upward mobility through its sponsorship of a YMCA Center, elementary school, and some small businesses, as well as a company store. However air pollution was a constant health threat; the houses lacked indoor plumbing. As demand for metallurgical coke declined, the mine laid off workers and Segundo's population declined. After a major fire in 1929, CF&I left town and Segundo became practically a ghost town.[33]

Company store[edit]

Main article: Company store

A company store was typical in more isolated areas. It was company owned and sold a limited range of food, clothing and daily necessities to employees of a company. It is typical of a company town in a remote area where virtually everyone is employed by one firm, such as the coal mine. In a company town, the housing is owned by the company but there may be independent stores there or nearby. Company stores face little or no competition and prices are therefore not competitive. The store typically accepts "scrip" or non-cash vouchers issued by the company in advance of weekly cash paychecks, and gives credit to employees before payday.

Fishback finds that:


The stores served numerous functions, such as a locus for the government post office, and as the cultural, and community center where people could freely gather.[35] Company stores became scarce after the miners bought automobiles and could travel to a range of stores.

Safety and health in the mines[edit]

Being a miner in the 19th century meant long hours of continuous hard labor in the dark mines with low ceilings. Accidents were frequent. Young boys were used outside the mine to sort coal from rocks; they were not allowed underground until age 18.

The breathing of coal dust caused black lung, whose effects few miners knew would have on their bodies.[36]

Coal miners at a deep anthracite mine in Hazleton, Pennsylvania in 1900.

20th century[edit]

Prosperity 1897-1919[edit]

Main article: Coal Strike of 1902

The United Mine Workers (UMWA) had won a sweeping victory in an 1897 strike by the soft-coal (bituminous coal) miners in the Midwest, winning significant wage increases and growing from 10,000 to 115,000 members.[37] The UAW faced much stiffer opposition in the concentration of ownership in the small anthracite region. The owners, controlled by large railroads, refused to meet or to arbitrate with the union; the union struck in September 1900, with results that surprised even the union, as miners of all different nationalities walked out in support of the union.

In the Coal Strike of 1902 the UMW targeted the anthracite coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania. Miners were on strike asking for higher wages, shorter workdays and the recognition of their union. The strike threatened to shut down the winter fuel supply to all major cities (homes and apartments were heated with anthracite or "hard" coal because it had higher heat value and less smoke than "soft" or bituminous coal). President Theodore Roosevelt became involved and set up a fact-finding commission that suspended the strike. The strike never resumed, as the miners received more pay for fewer hours; the owners got a higher price for coal, and did not recognize the union as a bargaining agent. It was the first labor episode in which the federal government intervened as a neutral arbitrator.[38]

Between 1898 and 1908 the wages of coal miners, both in the bituminous and anthracite districts had doubled. Business leaders, led by the National Civic Federation, and political leaders such as Mark Hanna worked with the miners union on favorable terms. Nash notes that the coal operators saw that it was to the advantage to support the union policy of uniform wage rates, for it prevented cutthroat competition and falling prices. The UMW limited the propensity of miners to go on wildcat strikes.[39]

"Keeping Warm" The Los Angeles Times, a conservative newspaper, demands federal action to stop the coal strike, November 22, 1919

The UMW under its new young leader John L. Lewis called a strike for November 1, 1919 in all soft (bituminous) coal fields They had agreed to a wage agreement to run until the end of World War I and now sought to capture some of their industry's wartime gains. The Federal government invoked the wartime measure that made it a crime to interfere with the production or transportation of necessities. Ignoring the court order 400,000 coal workers walked out. The coal operators played the radical card, saying Lenin and Trotsky had ordered the strike and were financing it, and some of the press echoed that language.[40]


The UMW was weakened by internal factionalism in the 1920s and lost members. Oil was replacing coal as the nation's main energy source and the industry was threatened. The number of coal miners nationwide fell from a peak of 694,000 in 1919 to 602,000 in 1929, and fell sharply to 454,000 in 1939 and 170,000 in 1959.[43]


Between 1917 and 1926 Cape Breton coal towns changed from company towns to labor towns, reflecting a change in the local balance of power. The main union, the Amalgamated Mine Workers of Nova Scotia, started in 1917 and won union recognition, wage increases, and the eight-hour day. The union mobilized its voters and took control of town councils. They challenged coal companies on the use of company police and assessment of taxes. The most dramatic change was the town council's success in restricting the authority of the company police, who had often served as special, unpaid town police officers. The town councils also intervened in the strife of the 1920s, assisting the miners against the British Empire Steel Corporation's wage-cutting.[44]

The Amalgamated became Communist-led in the 1930s and promoted militancy, extreme rank-and-file democracy and radical resistance to company demands for wage cuts. During the Second World War, after the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany in 1941 the union overnight became intense supporters of the war effort, and maximum output of coal. The rank and file miners, however, were primarily interested in regaining lost income, and began slow-downs to force the company to pay higher wages. When wages did go up, output fell as absenteeism increased and the younger men left for better-paying factory jobs, and the remaining men resisted any speedup. The union leaders were unable to control a dissatisfied and militant work force, as the miners fought both the company and their own union leaders.[45]

The political unity and radicalism of coal miners has traditionally been explained in terms of the isolation of a homogeneous mass of workers in conditions of economic and cultural deprivation. However local studies in Nova Scotia show that mechanizing the mines gave miners significant control over underground operations. In addition, the cooperative nature of the work enabled the miners to forge close friendships. By contrast in another coalfield, where miners were largely unskilled, owners could replace men easily and undermine the unions.[46]



See also: Mining accident
The 1906 Courrières mine disaster in France

Mining has always been dangerous, because of methane gas explosions, roof cave-ins, and the difficulty of mines rescue. The worst single disaster in British coal mining history was at Senghenydd in the South Wales coalfield. On the morning of 14 October 1913 an explosion and subsequent fire killed 436 men and boys. It followed a series of many extensive Mining accidents such as The Oaks explosion of 1866 and the Hartley Colliery Disaster of 1862. Most of the explosions were caused by firedamp ignitions followed by coal dust explosions. Deaths were mainly caused by carbon monoxide poisoning or asphyxiation.



Often the victims were memorialized by songs. For example, at least 11 folk songs were composed about the 1956 and 1958 disasters at Springhill, Nova Scotia, that involved 301 miners (113 died and 188 were rescued).[49]

See also[edit]



United States and Canada[edit]


  2. ^ Frederic Meyers, European Coal Mining Unions: structure and function (1961) p. 86
  3. ^ Kazuo Nimura, The Ashio Riot of 1907: A Social History of Mining in Japan (1997) p 48
  4. ^ Hajo Holborn, History of Modern Germany (1959) p. 521
  7. ^ Bruce Podobnik (2008). Global Energy Shifts: Fostering Sustainability in a Turbulent Age. Temple U.P. pp. 40–41. 
  8. ^ K. G. J. C. Knowles, Strikes (Oxford UP, 1952)
  9. ^ Geoffrey G. Field (2011). Blood, Sweat, and Toil: Remaking the British Working Class, 1939-1945. Oxford U.P. pp. 11, 113. 
  10. ^ Geoff Eley (2002). Forging Democracy: The History of the Left in Europe, 1850-2000. Oxford U.P. pp. 76, 495. 
  11. ^ John Hinde (2011). When Coal Was King: Ladysmith and the Coal-Mining Industry on Vancouver Island. UBC Press. p. 4. 
  12. ^ Jody Pavilack (2011). Mining for the Nation: The Politics of Chile's Coal Communities from the Popular Front to the Cold War. Penn State U. Press. pp. 1–4. 
  13. ^ Andrzej K. Koźmiński (1993). Catching Up?: Organizational and Management Change in the Ex-Socialist Block. SUNY Press. pp. 12–14. 
  14. ^ Griffin, Emma (2010). A Short History of the British Industrial Revolution. Palgrave. pp. 109–10. 
  15. ^ Stefan Llafur Berger, "Working-Class Culture and the Labour Movement in the South Wales and the Ruhr Coalfields, 1850-2000: A Comparison," Journal of Welsh Labour History/Cylchgrawn Hanes Llafur Cymru (2001) 8#2 pp 5-40.
  16. ^ Brian R. Mitchell (1984). Economic Development of the British Coal Industry, 1800-1914. CUP Archive. pp. 190–1. 
  17. ^ "Forgotten (or conveniently forgotten) reason for 1926 miners strike recalled - Dr Fred Starr | Claverton Group". Claverton-energy.com. Retrieved 2010-08-28. 
  18. ^ Robertson, D. H. 'A Narrative of the General Strike of 1926' The Economic Journal Vol. 36, no. 143 (Sept., 1926) p.376
  19. ^ Griffiths, D. A History of the NPA 1906-2006 (London: Newspaper Publishers Association, 2006) pg. 67
  20. ^ Robertson, D. H. p.377
  21. ^ Alastair Reid, and Steven Tolliday, "The General Strike, 1926", Historical Journal (1977) 20#4 pp. 1001–1012 in JSTOR, on historiography
  22. ^ Peter Mathias, The First Industrial Nation: An Economic History of Britain, 1700-1914. London: Routledge, 2001
  24. ^ Ben Curtis, "A Tradition of Radicalism: The Politics of the South Wales Miners, 1964-1985," Labour History Review (2011) 76#1 pp 34-50
  25. ^ BBC Coal mine closes with celebration 25 January 2008
  26. ^ Chris Evans, Göran Rydén, The Industrial Revolution in Iron; The impact of British Coal Technology in Ninenteenth-Century Europe (Ashgate, 2005, pp. 37-38).
  27. ^ Griffin, Emma. "Why was Britain first? The Industrial revolution in global context". Short History of the British Industrial Revolution. Retrieved 6 February 2013. 
  28. ^ Berger, "Working-Class Culture and the Labour Movement in the South Wales and the Ruhr Coalfields, 1850-2000: A Comparison," (2001) pp 5-40.
  29. ^ W.P. Tams Jr., Smokeless Coal Fields of West Virginia: A Brief History (1963; 2nd ed. 2001), pp 4-8; written by a paternalistic mine owner. excerpt and text search
  30. ^ Ronald L. Lewis, Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields (2008)
  31. ^ Rowland. Berthoff, "The Social Order of the Anthracite Region, 1825-1902," Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography (1965) 89#3 pp 261-291
  32. ^ Richard Jensen, Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896 (1971) chapter 8.
  35. ^ Lou Athey, "The Company Store in Coal Town Culture," Labor's Heritage (1990) 2#1 pp 6-23.
  36. ^ Fox (1990)
  37. ^ Victor R. Greene, "A Study in Slavs, Strikes and Unions: The Anthracite Strike of 1897." Pennsylvania History. (1964) 31#2 199-215.
  38. ^ Robert H. Wiebe, "The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902: A Record of Confusion." Mississippi Valley Historical Review (1961) 48#2 , pp. 229–51. in JSTOR
  39. ^ Michael Nash, Conflict and Accommodation: Coal Miners, Steel Workers, and Socialism, 1890-1920 (1982)
  41. ^ Irwin Marcus, Eileen Cooper and Beth O'Leary, "The Coal Strike of 1919 in Indiana County," Pennsylvania History (1989) 56#3 pp. 177-195 in JSTOR. Indiana County is a coal mining district in the state of Pennsylvania.
  42. ^ Coben, 181–3; New York Times: "Miners Finally Agree", December 11, 1919. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
  43. ^ U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 (1976) p 580
  44. ^ Frank David, "Company Town/Labour Town: Local Government in the Cape Breton Coal Towns, 1917-1926," Social History / Histoire Sociale (1981) 14#27 pp 177-196.
  45. ^ Michael Earle, "'Down with Hitler and Silby Barrett': The Cape Breton Miners' Slowdown Strike of 1941," Acadiensis (1988) 18#1 pp 56-90.
  46. ^ Ian McKay, "The Realm of Uncertainty: The Experience of Work in the Cumberland Coal Mines, 1873-1927," Acadiensis (1986) 16#1 pp 3-57.
  47. ^ Penfold Steven, "'Have You No Manhood in You?' Gender and Class in the Cape Breton Coal Towns, 1920-1926." Acadiensis (1994) 23#2 pp 21-44.
  49. ^ Neil V. Rosenberg, "The Springhill Mine Disaster Songs: Class, Memory, and Persistence in Canadian Folksong," Northeast Folklore (2001), Vol. 35, pp 153-187.

Further reading[edit]


  • Arnot, Robert Page The Miners: a History of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, 1889-1910. London: Allen and Unwin, 1949.
  • Arnot, R. P. The miners: years of struggle: a history of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain from 1910 onwards. 1953.
  • Arnot, R. P. The miners: in crisis and war: a history of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain from 1930 onwards. 1961
  • Barron, Hester. The 1926 Miners' Lockout: Meanings of Community in the Durham Coalfield (2010)
  • Benson, John. British Coal-Miners in the Nineteenth Century: A Social History (1980) online
  • Colls, Robert The pitmen of the northern coalfield: work, culture and protest, 1790-1850. 1987
  • Dennis, N. Coal is our life: an analysis of a Yorkshire mining community. 1956
  • Gildart, Keith. "The Women and Men of 1926: A Gender and Social History of the General Strike and Miners' Lockout in South Wales", Journal of British Studies, (July 2011) 50#3 pp 758–759
  • Gildart, Keith. "The Miners' Lockout in 1926 in the Cumberland Coalfield", Northern History, (Sept 2007) 44#2 pp 169–192
  • Dron, Robert W. The economics of coal mining (1928).
  • Fine, B. The Coal Question: Political Economy and Industrial Change from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day (1990).
  • Fynes, R. The miners of Northumberland and Durham: a history of their social and political progress. 1873, reprinted 1985. Online at Open Library.
  • Galloway, Robert L. A History Of Coal Mining In Great Britain (1882) Online at Open Library.
    • Roy Church, Alan Hall and John Kanefsky. History of the British Coal Industry: Volume 3: Victorian Pre-Eminence
    • William Ashworth and Mark Pegg. History of the British Coal Industry: Volume 5: 1946-1982: The Nationalized Industry (1986)
  • Orwell, George. "Down the Mine" (The Road to Wigan Pier chapter 2, 1937) full text
  • Waller, Robert. The Dukeries Transformed: A history of the development of the Dukeries coal field after 1920 (Oxford U.P., 1983) on the Dukeries
  • Welbourne, R. The Miners' Union of Northumberland and Durham. 1923. Online at Open Library.
  • Zweig,F. Men in the pits. 1948

United States[edit]

  • Bernstein, Irving. The Lean Years: a History of the American Worker 1920-1933 (1966), best coverage of the era
  • Bernstein, Irving. Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1941 (1970), best coverage of the era
  • Blatz, Perry. Democratic Miners: Work and Labor Relations in the Anthracite Coal Industry, 1875-1925. (Albany: SUNY Press, 1994)
  • Corbin, David Alan Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners, 1880-1922 (1981)
  • Dublin, Thomas and Walter Licht. The Face of Decline: The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region in the Twentieth Century (2005) excerpt and text search
  • Dubofsky, Melvyn, and Warren Van Tine. John L. Lewis: A Biography (1977), the standard scholarly biography excerpt and text search
  • Fishback, Price V. "Did Coal Miners 'Owe Their Souls to the Company Store'? Theory and Evidence from the Early 1900s," Journal of Economic History (1986) 46#4 pp 1011–29 in JSTOR
  • Fishback, Price V. Soft Coal, Hard Choices: The Economic Welfare of Bituminous Coal Miners, 1890-1930 (1992) ONLINE
  • Fox, Maier B. United We Stand: The United Mine Workers of America 1890-1990. International Union, United Mine Workers of America, 1990.
  • Hinrichs, A. F. The United Mine Workers of America, and the Non-Union Coal Fields (1923) online edition
  • Laslett, John H.M. ed. The United Mine Workers: A Model of Industrial Solidarity? (Penn State U.P., 1996)
  • Lewis, Ronald L. Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields (2008)online
  • Lynch, Edward A., and David J. McDonald. Coal and Unionism: A History of the American Coal Miners' Unions (1939) online edition
  • Rössel, Jörg. Industrial Structure, Union Strategy and Strike Activity in Bituminous Coal Mining, 1881 - 1894, Social Science History (2002) 26#1 1 - 32.
  • Seltzer, Curtis. Fire in the Hole: Miners and Managers in the American Coal Industry University Press of Kentucky, 1985, conflict in the coal industry to the 1980s.
  • Ward, Robert D. and William W. Rogers, Labor Revolt in Alabama: The Great Strike of 1894 University of Alabama Press, 1965 online coal strike
  • Zieger, Robert H. "Lewis, John L." American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.
  • Zieger, Robert H. John L. Lewis: Labor Leader (1988), 220pp short biography by scholar


  • Calderón, Roberto R. Mexican Coal Mining Labor in Texas & Coahuila, 1880-1930 (2000) 294pp.
  • Frank, David. J. B. McLachlan: A Biography: The Story of a Legendary Labour Leader and the Cape Breton Coal Miners, (1999), in Canada
  • Kulczycki, John J. The Polish Coal Miners' Union and the German Labor Movement in the Ruhr, 1902-1934: National and Social Solidarity (1997); the socially conservative Catholic Polish miners had a high strike activity level
  • Kulczycki, John J. The Foreign Worker and the German Labor Movement: Xenophobia and Solidarity in the Coal Fields of the Ruhr, 1871-1914 (1994)
  • Marsden, Susan, Coals to Newcastle: a History of Coal Loading at the Port of Newcastle, New South Wales 1797-1997 (2002) ISBN 0-9578961-9-0; Australia

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