Laslett, John H.
Description
This masterful study charts the extensive common ground and telling differences between two widely separated coal-mining communities: Lanarkshire, in
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the Clyde Valley of southwest Scotland, and the northern Illinois coalfield that became a prime destination for skilled Scottish migrant miners in the mid-nineteenth century.
Challenging the prevailing exceptionalist paradigm of labor history, John Laslett examines the social, economic, and political context of each of these communities in generous detail. He traces the progressive heightening of dais consciousness as the coal industry evolved from skilled hand labor to mechanized extraction and the escalating hostility between miners and mineowners as their interests split along dais lines. Examining the rise of militant industrial unionism in both areas, Laslett provides a sophisticated explanation of the American and Scottish miners' divergent approaches to collectivist solutions.
Based on a profound knowledge of both communities, Colliers across the Sea tells a compelling story of democratic aspirations, community, and industrial transformation's human costs.
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