Soft Coal, Hard Choices : The Economic Welfare of Bituminous Coal Miners, 1890-1930

This is a study of the economic lives of American bituminous coal miners in the early part of this century.

Most studies of labour in coal mining focus on the struggle to organize unions.

This study offers a broader, more quantitative picture of the labour market, making use of economic theory and statistics, and emphasizing competition among employers for labour, the legal environment, the development of institutions in response to transactions costs, as well as the impact of unions.