Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1270876 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Review
A terrific book. The photographs alone are powerful documents of how it really was for so many. Much of the story is tragic. Many readers will be astonished that such conditions and suffering could ever have prevailed. But these were real people and these were their times. They never imagined themselves as figures in History with a capital H -- their concern was largely survival but they too built America and their story, in all, is finally one of affirmation: a reminder that people are our richest resource. -- David McCullough

A well-documented history of a giant American industry and a fascinating story of the unique regional culture that it spawned... [The text] conveys something of the economic and environmental costs of this vast and audacious enterprise. This rewarding and disturbing book is bound to make you reflect on the human cost as well. -- James Idema: Smithsonian

About the Author
Donald L. Miller holds the John Henry McCracken chair of history at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.

Richard E. Sharpless, a former newspaper reporter and magazine writer and editor, is a professor of history at Lafayette College.

Customer Reviews

Detailed history of Noheastern Pa. coal fields
This is the definitive history of the birth, rise and fall of the anthracite coal industry in three northeastern Pennsylvania fields: Schulykill, Lackawana and Wyoming. Written in narrative form with copious references, it details the everyday trials and tribulations of the immigrants who worked the fields and the coal companies who exploited them. This is must reading for anyone wanting an insight into the lives of their ancestors who immigrated and worked these fields between 1800 and 1970,

Comprehensive. Well done!!
Kingdom of Coal is a very well done telling of the history of anthracite coal. The book tells the story from the days when stone coal was first discovered in the wilderness of Eastern PA, through its development as a major energy source, and into the labor struggle. Closely associated is the development of canals, known as the anthracite canals to bring the coal to market and later the development of railroads. Still later the railroads, known as the anthracite railroads owned most of the mines.

The book also covers the close association between coal and the iron industry. Anthracite was first used by blacksmiths. It soon replaced charcoal in blast furnaces to reduce iron ore to iron. Iron rails for the railroads, previously imported from England, were an early product.

Missing in the book is the story of the gaslight industry. Processes for the manufacture of gas from coal were invented in 1815. Nearly every city of any size had a gas plant to supply gaslights. This was an early user of coal--originally imported from Europe. The industry continued until World War II when transcontinental pipelines brought natural gas to the distribution systems originally built for manufactured gas.

History of coal
Because my husband is descended from coal miners in Slovakia and KY, this book was purchased for a family reunion. Men were especially interested in the story of getting coal out of the ground, how it affected families and even children.