Customer Reviews

Growing Up in Coal Country

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A very interesting little book for anyone who grew up in or has an interest in the history of the Pennsylvania Anthracite Region. The stories in this book apply to so many thousands of families that lived there and tried so hard to make a living under the harshest of conditions. Life was anything but easy for the anthracite miner and his family - no medical insurance (but then medical care was almost non-existent), no paid holidays, just dirty and dangerous work. The book is brief, reads easy but generally does a good job of telling it like it was back then and in that place.

i've been researching the history of the anthracite region and specifically the experience of miners and their families, and this was one of the most useful books i've seen. by detailing the different jobs the boys in the mines did, bartoletti also manages to describe how a mine worked in ways that other books on mining don't really explain. it covers the whole process by telling stories about the different jobs the kids did.

the photos too are wonderful. you get a real sense of how much these kids are both children and yet so remarkably grown up, just from the looks in their eyes.

the stories about them range from terrifically sad (i cried a few times) to heartwarming and sweet. the book doesn't come off as bombast or pure sentiment, but keeps a very journalistic view of these kids & their reality.

i highly recommend it.

This is a fascinating book about the life and times of the coal miners in Pennsylvania when "coal was king" and child labor laws were things of the future. The photographs, especially those involving children, are haunting; and Susan Bartoletti's text is lucid and poignant. Impressions of the "breaker boys", "nippers", "spraggers", and the "fire boss" lingered in my mind long after I finished reading this book.

My family roots are in Southern West Virginia soft smokeless coal, which was once the center of world coal production, not the harder Pennsylvania anthracite that is the center of this book, but coal mining is coal mining.

This book gives a good picture of the lives, work, struggles, and creation of anthracite miners, not just as an economic or political group, but as people. The touching, knowing, humanizing text, and the great pictures let me see things I had heard people say, but known only from books, or not even from books like "Once a miner, twice a breaker boy."

This is not a children's book, but a book that had a profound impact on this 61 year old academic who has studied the history of coal mining and the UMWA for decades.

You get taken inside the mine, inside the tipple, inside the homes, inside the ball games, inside the lives of these miners and see the strength and struggle of their lives. We are also treated to know of their struggles, especially the great Molly McGuires and Mother Jones, produts of the Pennsylvania anthracite fields.

None of this is over. With energy prices skyrocketing, coal mining is booming especially in the Mountain West states of Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. Across the Appalachian Coal fields and the Anthracite region, coal mines and fields that were once not economical to work are being reopened. Get rich now before oil goes down is one of the slogans of the new and old coal barons with mines being opened quickly without regard to the safety of the miners or the destruction of the ecology.

A spate of accidents, mostly not accidents but murder by corporate greed, and disasters--floods and landslides from strip mining and entire communities losing decent water from the dynamite blasts of "mountain top removal"--have sprung up. None of this will stop until coal mining is done for working people's needs, not corporate profit.

Until then what is desperately needed by coal miners and their families is the expansion of the Mineworkers union and its battle for union control of safety and benefits for the victims of black lung.

Read this book and think not of past times it depicts, but of the same struggle being waged by miners digging coal under the ground or blasting it out from the surface. See the strength, struggle and power of these people and know they are worthy of these tasks!

I teach 8th grade English, and we have been reading this book. The students love it! the stories are great, the pictures equally as wonderful. It details the jobs from the smallest breaker boy to the miner and his butty - talks about the mules and rats, and the patch towns, as well as the tragedies, and 'black maria'.

We live about an hour away from the Scranton area, and we are planning to visit the coal mines. The students are very excited to visit, and have learned so much already about the region. It is also great for me, as i had 2 great uncles who worked in the PA mines.

My greandfather was a coal miner-who started out as a "breaker boy". I bought this book to get insight on how conditions were when working in the coal mines in the early 1900's. This book certainly opened my eyes to see how harsh it was to earn a living in this manner. Reading this made me understand what type of life my grandfather had as a young child and gave me a better insight into what the coal mining industry was all about during this period of time.

I love this book. There are more photos than any other book I've found about the history of coal mining in America. I'm so thankful that this book is out there. The photos of children who worked in the coal mine are heartbreaking. Much praise is heaped.

While trying to better understand my ancestors' lives, I have purchased several short books showing workers in Pennsylvania's anthracite colliaries of a century or more ago. This one is my favorite. It has a very good balance of text and appropriate related photos. It clearly describes the tasks of the various laborers inside the mines and breakers, and life in the mining areas. It includes personnal anecdotes from the workers that help give it life and humor. I found it easy and enjoyable to read, and I learned a lot.

This book opened my eyes about child labor in American history. Aside from being a fascinating look at the mechanics of coal-mining, this book is a sobering exploration of how children were treated, and raises questions about life in the mines right now.

Very good book with photos that tell a of a time period all but forgotten.