Hardback

eBook

Add to GoodReads

Anthracite's Demise and the Post-Coal Economy of Northeastern Pennsylvania

Thomas Keil and Jacqueline M. Keil

Examining the anthracite coal trade's emergence and legacy in the five counties that constituted the core of the industry, the authors explain the split in the modes of production between entrepreneurial production and corporate production and the consequences of each for the two major anthracite regions. This book argues that the initial conditions in which the anthracite industry developed led to differences in the way workers organized and protested working conditions and the way in which the two regions were affected by the decline of the industry and two subsequent waves of deindustrialization.

The authors examine the bourgeois class formation in the coal regions and its consequences for differential regional growth and urbanization. This is given context through their investigation of class conflict in the region and the struggle of workers to build a stable union that would represent their interests, as well as the struggles within the union that finally emerged as the dominant force (the United Mine Workers of American) between conservative business unionists and progressive forces.

Lastly, the authors explore the demise of anthracite as the dominant industry, the attempt to attract replacement industries, the subsequent two waves of deindustrialization in the region, and the current economic conditions that prevail in the former coal counties and the cities in them. This book includes a discussion of local politics and the emergence of a strong labor-Democratic tie in the northern anthracite region and a weaker tie between labor and the Democratic party in the central and southern fields.

University Press Copublishing Division / Lehigh University Press

Pages: 172 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-1-61146-175-6 • Hardback • December 2014 • $107.00 • (£82.00)

978-1-61146-176-3 • eBook • December 2014 • $101.50 • (£78.00)

Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA), Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Regional Studies, Business & Economics / Industries / Energy Industries

Anthracite's Demise and the Post-Coal Economy of Northeastern Pennsylvania

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Examining the anthracite coal trade's emergence and legacy in the five counties that constituted the core of the industry, the authors explain the split in the modes of production between entrepreneurial production and corporate production and the consequences of each for the two major anthracite regions. This book argues that the initial conditions in which the anthracite industry developed led to differences in the way workers organized and protested working conditions and the way in which the two regions were affected by the decline of the industry and two subsequent waves of deindustrialization.

The authors examine the bourgeois class formation in the coal regions and its consequences for differential regional growth and urbanization. This is given context through their investigation of class conflict in the region and the struggle of workers to build a stable union that would represent their interests, as well as the struggles within the union that finally emerged as the dominant force (the United Mine Workers of American) between conservative business unionists and progressive forces.

Lastly, the authors explore the demise of anthracite as the dominant industry, the attempt to attract replacement industries, the subsequent two waves of deindustrialization in the region, and the current economic conditions that prevail in the former coal counties and the cities in them. This book includes a discussion of local politics and the emergence of a strong labor-Democratic tie in the northern anthracite region and a weaker tie between labor and the Democratic party in the central and southern fields.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Lehigh University Press

Pages: 172 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-1-61146-175-6 • Hardback • December 2014 • $107.00 • (£82.00)

978-1-61146-176-3 • eBook • December 2014 • $101.50 • (£78.00)

Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA), Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Regional Studies, Business & Economics / Industries / Energy Industries

Author

Thomas Keil is professor emeritus of sociology at Arizona State University.

Jacqueline M. Keil is political science faculty member at Kean University.

Table of Contents

Map {Anthracite Coal Fields Scan}
Preface
Chapter 1: A Brief History of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Early Settlement and Development
Chapter 2: Bourgeois Class Formation in the Coalfields
Chapter 3: Worker Rebellion and the Problems of Worker Solidarity
Chapter 4: Industrial Unionism Reemerges in the Coalfields
Chapter 5: The Post-1902 Strike Era
Chapter 6: The Demise of Anthracite and the Rise of a Politically Organized Working Class
Chapter 7: Subsequent Waves of Deindustrialization
Chapter 8: Conclusions
Bibliography

Anthracite's Demise and the Post-Coal Economy of Northeastern Pennsylvania

Thomas Keil and Jacqueline M. Keil

Anthracite's Demise and the Post-Coal Economy of Northeastern Pennsylvania

ALSO AVAILABLE