Black Gold: The Rise, Reign, and Fall of American CoalCoal's central role in America's history and its ongoing threats in the climate crisis. For decades coal has been crucial to America's culture, society, and environment, an essential ingredient in driving out winter's cold, cooking meals, and lighting the dark. In the coalfields and beyond, Bob Wyss describes how this magical elixir sparked the Industrial Revolution, powered railroads, and built urban skylines, while providing home comforts for families. Coal's history and heritage are fundamental to understanding its legacy of threats to America's well-being. As industry developed so did clashes between powerful tycoons, coal miners, and innocent families. Exploitation and avarice led to victimization, deadly violence, and ultimately the American labor movement. More recently coal has endangered American lives and safety, brought on by two centuries of carbon combustion, and here the threat remains unresolved. This is coal's most enduring legacy, and Black Gold is pivotal in helping us understand how we got to this point. |
Contents
Kingpin | 3 |
Centralia | 9 |
explosion 1947 | 14 |
Coal miners at the Lorain Coal Dock Company in Lorado West | 17 |
Base of a fossilized lycopod tree rooted in the top of the Galatia Coal | 25 |
Energy Crisis | 35 |
Selfportrait painted by Jacob Cist 1801 | 42 |
The Race West | 46 |
John L Lewis appearing at a U S Senate committee hearing 1938 | 137 |
Coal Town | 143 |
Virginia 1918 | 146 |
The Whipple Company Store in West Virginia 2009 | 150 |
St Louis Mayor Bernard Dickmann 1940 | 158 |
Smokestacks loom above the Homestead steel mill 1907 | 169 |
Navajo Generating Station in the desert near Page Arizona 2016 | 178 |
Coal River 181 | 181 |
Woodcut of a very early steam locomotive 1814 | 49 |
Prototype of the small rotary converter created by William Kelly | 59 |
Centennial | 79 |
The Corliss steam engine at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition | 81 |
Portrait of Andrew Carnegie 1905 | 91 |
Main concourse of New Yorks Pennsylvanias Station ca 1910 | 109 |
Corinne Adams president of the Ladies Literary Club of Salt Lake | 115 |
Cover of The Masses depicting the death of a striking miners family | 128 |
The Coal Miner | 132 |
Black Lung | 190 |
Samuel and Dianna Perdue 2000 | 193 |
Longview | 200 |
Public hearing regarding the proposed Millennium coal terminal in Longview Washington 2016 | 205 |
Memorial | 211 |
Coal processing plant along the Ohio River in Ceredo West Virginia 2015 | 213 |
CHAPTER | 222 |
| 289 | |
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Common terms and phrases
African Americans air pollution Andrew Carnegie anthracite arrived became began Bessemer black lung building burning called campaign Carboniferous Cassatt Centralia Cist Cist’s city’s climate change Club coal companies coal industry coal miners Coal River Coal River Valley coal smoke coal towns coalfields coke Colorado death decades Dianna Elrick engineer environmental federal feet fire fossil Frick fuel Gowen Henry Clay Frick historian Homestead Ibid Illinois Irish iron Joe Bryant John Kelly labor later leader Lehigh Lewis locomotives Longview Longview Daily Louis Post-Dispatch Ludlow Ludlow Massacre lycophytes massive McParlan miles million mining Molly Maguires Mountain National Navajo officials operators ordinance owners Penn Station Pennsylvania Railroad percent Philadelphia Photo courtesy Pinkerton Pittsburgh plant president produced rail remained reported retrieved Rockefeller Roosevelt Salt Lake scientists steel stoves strike struggled tion told tunnel U.S. Library UMWA union University Press West Virginia women workers wrote York