Customer Reviews

Smokestacks and Black Diamonds: A History of Carbon County, Pennsylvania

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was born in Coaldale, Carbon County. I grew up in Slatington, only a few miles from the Carbon County line, and spent some of the best hours of my boyhood tramping along the Appalachian Trail through the Lehigh Gap. That explains my personal interest in "Smokestacks and Black Diamonds: A History of Carbon County, Pennsylvania."
It doesn't explain how much I enjoyed the well-chosen photos and well-written essays in the book. The volume also reminded me of how much I didn't know about the county of my birth.
Author-editor Joan Campion does an excellent job of combining her own writing and that of contributors like Lance Metz and Rita Plotnicki to tell the story of Carbon County's industrial, agricultural and cultural heritage. I can't say too much about the selection of photos by George Harvan, who dedicated his professional life to capturing coal-mining on film.
If you like local history, you will enjoy this book. If you have had the good fortune to have lived or worked in the area, your enjoyment will be doubled.