ABSTRACT
This book has attempted a social history of mining from the point of view of the miner’s body, placing at centre stage the devastation wreaked upon mining communities by inhaling dust at work. By tracing the history of pneumoconiosis, bronchitis and emphysema in coal mining, we have explored how and why one of the most deadly and disabling of all occupational health disasters in Britain’s history occurred. In so doing, we have also investigated prevailing workplace culture, health behaviour and the impact of dust disease upon individuals, families and communities. Although we have tried to address an evident gap in the historiography of coal mining, we hope that our book has also made broader contributions to industrial relations and labour history, medical history, disability studies and to oral history. Whilst engaging with a clutch of hypotheses generated in the literature, it has also left many questions and research avenues unexplored. We aim to summarise our interpretation here and provide some pointers for the way forward towards possible future work in this field.
