Carbon County, USA

Miners for Democracy in Utah and the West

De: Christian Wright

Narrado por: David K. Aycock

Although unions are by no means entirely gone or lacking in lobbying power, their membership in traditional industries is on the decline and their influence continues to diminish. Only a generation ago, large unions such as the United Mine Workers of America held greater political and economic capital and inspired millions beyond their immediate ranks.

In this book, Christian Wright explores the complex history of the UMWA and coal mining in the West over a 50-year period of the 20th century, concentrating on the coal miners of Carbon and Emery counties in Utah. Wright emphasizes their experience during the 1970s, which saw the rise and passing of American workers’ most successful postwar effort to internally reform a major labor organization: the Miners for Democracy movement.

As Wright details how and why Miners for Democracy and nonunion mining raced to control coal’s future, he also touches on the UMWA’s regional origins during and immediately after the New Deal, when cracks in union efficacy and benefit programs began to appear. Using sophisticated demography, Wright not only details how miners’ racial, gender, and generational identities shaped their changing relationships to mining and organized labor, he also illustrates the place of nonunion miners, antiunion employers, the unemployed, ethnic minorities, and women in transforming “Carbon County, USA.”

Drawing on a variety of primary sources, Wright provides evidence for organized labor’s continuing significance and value while effectively illuminating its mounting frustrations during a relatively recent chapter in the history of Utah and the United States.

©2019 University of Utah Press (P)2020 University of Utah Press

Important and Fascinating history

This book is a history of mining and Unions in Central Utah. The author thoroughly did his research and did it well. The prose is engaging and very interesting. I bought this book because I had ancestors who were miners in the towns that are written about. I was not expecting it to be as good and important as it is.

The story and history in this book are important and relevant now as the coal industry is struggling, as civil rights are in jeopardy, and as the Trump regime is taking us back to dangerous times from our past. I encourage reading or listening to this book.

One critical comment - the reader did an excellent job in to tone, inflection, speed, dictionary, etc. BUT the producers need to coach him on pronunciation of Utah related words.