The Plight Of The Bituminous Coal Miner

A firsthand graphic account of the deplorable conditions in the Kentucky and West Virginia mines, covering the general economic problem and possible rehabilitation for the 200,000 miners who will be permanently out of work.

For more than one hundred years, until the 1920s, coal production involved blasting a seam of coal and loading it by had into a mine car. In the late 1920s, operators introduced machines into the mines, including the coal loader. In this book, Keith Dix explores the impact of technology on miners and operators during a crucial period in industrial history. Dix reconstructs the social, political, technical and economic environment of the “hand-loading” era and then views the evolution of mechanical coal technology, including the inventions of Joseph Joy. He also examines the rise of the United Mine Workers under John L. Lewis, and the expanded role of the state under New Deal legislation and regulations.

In Appalachia's Path to Dependency, Paul Salstrom examines the evolution of economic life over time in southern Appalachia. Moving away from the colonial model to an analysis based on dependency, he exposes the complex web of factors—regulation of credit, industrialization, population growth, cultural values, federal intervention—that has worked against the region. Salstrom argues that economic adversity has resulted from three types of disadvantages: natural, market, and political. The overall context in which Appalachia's economic life unfolded was one of expanding United States markets and, after the Civil War, of expanding capitalist relations. Covering Appalachia's economic history from early white settlement to the end of the New Deal, this work is not simply an economic interpretation but draws as well on other areas of history. Whereas other interpretations of Appalachia's economy have tended to seek social or psychological explanations for its dependency, this important work compels us to look directly at the region's economic history. This regional perspective offers a clear-eyed view of Appalachia's path in the future.