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When Coal Was King

Ladysmith and the Coal-Mining Industry on Vancouver Island
  • John Hinde
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2007
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About this book

The town of Ladysmith was one of the most important coal-mining communities on Vancouver Island during the early twentieth century. The Ladysmith miners had a reputation for radicalism and militancy and engaged in bitter struggles for union recognition and economic justice, most notably the Great Strike of 1912-14. This strike, one of the longest and most violent labour disputes in Canadian history, marked a watershed in the history of the town and the coal industry.

This book explains the origins of the 1912-14 strike by examining the development of the coal industry on Vancouver Island, the founding of Ladysmith, the experience of work and safety in the mines, the process of political and economic mobilization, and how these factors contributed to the development of identity and community. While the Vancouver Island coal industry and the strike have been the focus of a number of popular histories, this book goes beyond to emphasize the importance of class, ethnicity, gender, and community in creating the conditions for the emergence and mobilization of the working-class population. Informed by current academic debates on the matter and within the discipline, this readable history takes into account extensive archival research, and will appeal to historians and others interested in the history of Vancouver Island.

Author / Editor information

John R. Hinde has taught at the University of Victoria and Malaspina University College. His first book, Jacob Burckhardt and the Crisis of Modernity (2000), was awarded the 2001 Wallace K. Ferguson Prize by the Canadian Historical Association.

Reviews

This history of coal-mining in and around Ladysmith on Vancouver Island from the 1850s to the First World War is scholarly and well research, sympathetic to the coal miners and their families and aware of the context and the times of their rough lives. --- The author provides a thorough and sensitive post-mortem of Ladysmith’s most troubled days. Well-researched, lucid, and supplemented with almost two dozen photographs, When Coal was King will appeal to a variety of readers. --- Hinde’s community study is well researched and well grounded in Canadian working-class historiography. --- John R. Hinde’s rather understated title seems to imply that his book is simply as study of Vancouver Island’s coal industry as viewed through one community: Ladysmith. But his book is much more, for Hinde has a number of points to make about such topics as class-consciousness, radicalism, and militancy. In fact, this book is meant to be corrective. Throughout the text, he challenges interpretations other historians have developed while studying the area’s coal mines. Canadian labour historians will find the book interesting reading. --- John R. Hinde has written an engaged, subtle, and provocative account of coal miners on Vancouver Island. His study focuses on the 1898-1913 and on the mines in the vicinity of Ladysmith, but it includes context that illuminates the history of the industry throughout the island.

Topics

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    Front Matter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Illustrations

    vii
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    Acknowledgments

    ix
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    Introduction

    3
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    A Selfish Millionaire

    14
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    A Town of Merry Hearts

    35
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    Down in the Dark and Gloomy Dungeons

    63
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    Death’s Cold Hand

    91
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    From Pillar to Post

    123
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    The Great Strike

    148
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    No Ordinary Riot

    173
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    Conclusion

    207
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    Notes

    212
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    Bibliography

    258
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    Index

    269

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
August 15, 2023
eBook ISBN:
9780774851978
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
288
https://doi.org/10.59962/9780774851978
eBook ISBN: 9780774851978
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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