Describes what life was like, especially for children, in coal mines and mining towns in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In the depths of the Knight Hawk, one of the last working collieries in downstate Illinois, the body of a reporter is found, his mini-recorder tied around his neck and a notepad stuffed in his mouth. The Knight Hawk's owner, Matthew Luster, isn't happy. He wants answers -- and he doesn't want the cops or any more press poking into his business. To protect himself and the operation, he turns to Slim, a mine employee with a reputation for "bloodhounding"...

In a collection of interconnected short stories, Jennifer Haigh returns to the vividly imagined world of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town rocked by decades of painful transition. From its heyday during two world wars through its slow decline, Bakerton is a town the refuses to give up gracefully.

"The summer of 1995 kicks off with a party in [a] mine where six high school students witness a horrifying crime that changes the course of their lives. The six couldn't be more different, ... [but] when they realize that they can't trust anyone but each other, they begin to investigate what happened on their own. As tensions escalate in town to a breaking point, the six make a vow of silence, bury all their evidence, and promise to never contact...

Throughout his day, a young boy thinks of his father who is working in the coal mine that is located underneath the ocean.

Explores and analyzes the historical context and significance of the iconic Lewis Hine photograph of the breaker boys that lead to the end of child labor.

Thirteen-year-old Trina's family left Bohemia for a Colorado coal town to earn money to buy a farm, but by 1901 she doubts that either hard work or hoping will be enough, even after a strange fish seems to grant her sisters' wishes.

The reader is a coal miner in England and learns about the hardships and occupational hazards that come with the job.

"From before the dawn of the 20th-century until the arrival of the New Deal, one of the most protracted and deadly labor struggles in American history was waged in West Virginia. On one side were powerful corporations whose millions bought armed guards and political influence. On the other side were 50,000 mine workers, the nation's largest labor union, and the legendary "miners' angel," Mother Jones. The fight for unionization and civil rights sparked...

In 1885, a lonely illegitimate American boy and a lonely Chinese American boy develop an unlikely friendship in the midst of prejudices and racial tension in their coal mining town of Rock Springs, Wyoming.