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Mining Men

byEmily P Webber

Britain’s Last Kings of the Coalface

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The story of the last generation of British miners: fathers and sons, brothers and comrades, big hitters and broken men, strikers and scabs.

'A compelling, unflinching account…full of tales of tragedy, gallows humour and camaraderie’ The Times

What happened to Britain's last generation of miners? Combining new personal interviews with extensive archival research, Emily P. Webber illuminates the extraordinary history of the industry once considered the backbone of Britain.

By situating the miners’ strike of 1984–85 in a longer history of the coalfields, we can understand why miners and their families fought so hard against pit closures, and what happened after the pit wheels stopped turning. Vivid, evocative and richly alive with minute detail, Mining Men explores what the mining industry once meant to its workers and their communities, and what Britain lost when it was gone.

'Fascinating... An engaging history of post-war British mining' Daily Telegraph

'Absorbing and enjoyable...an illuminating peek into the lives of those who risked everything to warm our hearths' The Herald

[A] hugely impressive book… a compelling, unflinching account that rattles by as a great human saga, full of tales of tragedy, gallows humour and camaraderie

The Times

About Emily P Webber

Emily P Webber completed a PhD at the University of Reading and University of Exeter, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Her research focused on masculinity and the British mining industry from nationalization in 1947 through to pit closures at the end of the twentieth century. Over the last few years, she has spoken to over a hundred miners, collecting their memories of the industry, and travelled across Britain’s former mining communities.

She was previously the Research Manager of the Imperial War Museum and contributed to several public-facing publications and acted as a curator for the award-winning Holocaust Exhibition. She is passionate about bringing history to wider audiences – and was recently selected as one of fifteen successful candidates for the Television Festival’s TV PhD Talent Scheme. She was also awarded the University of Reading’s PhD Researcher of the Year award for the Humanities. She has presented her research at conferences both in the UK and overseas, including at Northwestern University, the Institute of Historical Research, and the University of Birmingham, and she has published in History Workshop Journal, Contemporary British History and Twentieth Century History. She has also written for Time Out London.
Details
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • ISBN: 9781529921502
  • Length: 352 pages
  • Price: £12.99
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