I posted this several days ago and didn't get any answers. Hoping 2nd time's the charm!
I want to learn about the history of coal mining in the United States. I'm especially interested in coal mining in the 19th century, but I'd also be happy to read a more robust history of coal mining in the US. I haven't found anything in the Books and Resources list on the FAQ, and it's hard to know if a book I turn up on Google will be high-quality or not. What books would you recommend? Thanks!
I can recommend one work: Priscilla Long’s “Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America's Bloody Coal Industry” from Paragon House, 1989 is a decent work on this history up to about 1920. I read this book when I wanted to learn more of what it was like for my family who owned a West Virginia coal mine, but she ended about a decade too early as I recall, for it to be useful for my purposes.
However, Long does cite many other histories in this work, so her bibliography and notes would be useful.
To find more after 1920, you could check and see what books cite her work in various databases.
University of Iowa also has a publication on the history of coal mining in that state (where I also had family who owned coal mines).
As coal mining did differ regionally, and Iowa was one place with a lot of small, family mines, it may not be mentioned in other works in much detail.
It may be difficult to find, but there is a book called “Memories of Brazil” published out of Brazil, Iowa, in the 70s. I have a copy and cannot lay hands on it at the moment, but am glad to find it if it is of use to you. It has good accounts of how the coal mines in that region operated. It is vastly different than in Virginia, etc.
The Appanoose County Library in Centerville, IA should have a copy that they may copy from for InterLibrary Loan purposes. It may have been digitized, but I can’t locate a digital version.
This may not be relevant to you, but wanted to throw it out just in case: Kathleen Stewart’s “A Space on the Side of the Road: Cultural Poetics in an `Other' America” is an excellent ethnography of coal mining towns in West Virginia.