Content area
Full Text
Democratic Miners: Work and Labor Relations in the Anthracite Coal Industry, 1875-1925. By Perry K Blatz Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. xv + 368 pp. Tables, figures, notes, epilogue, and select bibliography. Cloth, $64.50, ISBN 0-7914-1819-7; paper, $21.95, 0-7914-1820-0.
Reviewed by Mary Ann Landis
Until Perry Blatz's book, comparatively little research had been published dealing with the history of the anthracite mine workers and their union activities following the United Mine Workers' (UMWA) strike of 1902. Labor historians of the anthracite mining industry had focused their attention on the decade of the Civil War, the Molly Maguires of the 1870s, the Lattimer Massacre in 1897, and the 1902 strike. Democratic Miners brings the subject of anthracite labor history through the first quarter of the twentieth century.
Blatz's characterization of the inherent militancy and independent spirit of the anthracite mine workers broadens our understanding of their relationship with the national union and its leaders, a relationship which sometimes was strained. He perceives that these workers placed a great deal of value on the sense of empowerment that participation in the union generated, particularly during periods of contract negotiations or job actions. Such empowerment was a critical component in the mine workers' struggle to achieve economic security in an industry whose workplace regime the author describes as "capricious."
The factors which contributed to the "capriciousness" of the anthracite industry are thoroughly discussed in the book. As Blatz explains, significant variations in the geology of the...