Description
In Pennsylvania Mining Families, Barry P. Michrina offers a luminous portrait of Pennsylvania coal miners and their response to economic oppression. He follows them from the good coal strike of 1927 via day by day threats of harm and death within the mines to the departure of kids and grandchildren because the industry has declined. Drawing on a large number of first-hand interviews, in addition to extensive archival research, he analyzes the change in work practices, the miners’ own views about their ever-evolving scenario, and relationships between miners and mining companies―undercutting the stereotypical picture of the rebellious miner.