The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the End of Industrial Britain
No one personified the age of industry more than the miners. The Shadow of the Mine tells the story of King Coal in its heyday – and what happened to mining communities after the last pits closed.

The Shadow of the Mine tells the story of King Coal in its heyday, the heroics and betrayals of the Miners’ Strike, and what happened to mining communities after the last pits closed.

No one personified the age of industry more than the miners. Coal was central to the British economy, powering its factories and railways. It carried political weight, too. In the eighties the miners risked everything in a year-long strike against Thatcher’s shutdowns. Their defeat doomed a way of life. The lingering sense of abandonment in former mining communities would be difficult to overstate. Yet recent electoral politics has revolved around the coalfield constituencies in Labour’s Red Wall. Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson draw on decades of research to chronicle these momentous changes through the words of the people who lived through them.

This edition includes a new postscript on why Thatcher’s war on the miners wasn’t good for green politics.

‘Excellent’
NEW STATESMAN

‘Brilliant’
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

‘Enlightening’
GUARDIAN
1137831571
The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the End of Industrial Britain
No one personified the age of industry more than the miners. The Shadow of the Mine tells the story of King Coal in its heyday – and what happened to mining communities after the last pits closed.

The Shadow of the Mine tells the story of King Coal in its heyday, the heroics and betrayals of the Miners’ Strike, and what happened to mining communities after the last pits closed.

No one personified the age of industry more than the miners. Coal was central to the British economy, powering its factories and railways. It carried political weight, too. In the eighties the miners risked everything in a year-long strike against Thatcher’s shutdowns. Their defeat doomed a way of life. The lingering sense of abandonment in former mining communities would be difficult to overstate. Yet recent electoral politics has revolved around the coalfield constituencies in Labour’s Red Wall. Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson draw on decades of research to chronicle these momentous changes through the words of the people who lived through them.

This edition includes a new postscript on why Thatcher’s war on the miners wasn’t good for green politics.

‘Excellent’
NEW STATESMAN

‘Brilliant’
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

‘Enlightening’
GUARDIAN
9.99 In Stock
The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the End of Industrial Britain

The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the End of Industrial Britain

The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the End of Industrial Britain

The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the End of Industrial Britain

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Overview

No one personified the age of industry more than the miners. The Shadow of the Mine tells the story of King Coal in its heyday – and what happened to mining communities after the last pits closed.

The Shadow of the Mine tells the story of King Coal in its heyday, the heroics and betrayals of the Miners’ Strike, and what happened to mining communities after the last pits closed.

No one personified the age of industry more than the miners. Coal was central to the British economy, powering its factories and railways. It carried political weight, too. In the eighties the miners risked everything in a year-long strike against Thatcher’s shutdowns. Their defeat doomed a way of life. The lingering sense of abandonment in former mining communities would be difficult to overstate. Yet recent electoral politics has revolved around the coalfield constituencies in Labour’s Red Wall. Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson draw on decades of research to chronicle these momentous changes through the words of the people who lived through them.

This edition includes a new postscript on why Thatcher’s war on the miners wasn’t good for green politics.

‘Excellent’
NEW STATESMAN

‘Brilliant’
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

‘Enlightening’
GUARDIAN

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781839761577
Publisher: Verso Books
Publication date: 06/29/2021
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format: eBook
Pages: 416
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Huw Beynon is Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences at Cardiff University and author of, among other things, Working for Ford, which has become a classic.

Ray Hudson is Professor of Geography at the University of Durham and a decorated member of the Royal Geographical Society. His books include Approaches to Economic Geography, winner of the Regional Studies Association Best Book Award 2017.

Table of Contents

List of Maps vii

List of Tables and Figures ix

Introduction 1

1 Two Coalfields, Two Labour Traditions 7

2 State Ownership 31

3 Power Politics 49

4 From Heath to Thatcher 73

5 Conflagration: The State Against the Miners 97

6 Of Managers and Markets 133

7 Thatcher's Redundant Entrepreneurs 161

8 Sticking Together and Falling Apart 183

9 Regeneration? 203

10 'Just Jobs' 221

11 The Fabric of Decline 235

12 Tragic Outcomes 257

13 Monsters and Ghosts 275

14 Building from the Past 291

15 The People Speak Out 315

Conclusions and Reflections 335

Acknowledgements 343

Note on Sources 345

Notes 349

Index 385

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