More than sixty years ago, the song "Which Side Are You On?" emerged from a National Miners Union meeting to become a symbol of the traditional conflict between coal miners and coal operators throughout Appalachia. That same conflict is also found in accounts of coal mining. Most people who write about coal mining are telling you which side they are on. Books about coal mining are, therefore, often more about politics than they are about people, places, and processes.

Coal mining in Appalachia began almost two hundred years ago and has changed dramatically since that time. Before the Civil War, coal from Appalachia was shipped by river as were most other goods. After the war, the growth of new factories and the spread of railroads greatly increased the demand for coal as a fuel. Railroads went into the coal fields to bring out the coal, and machinery made it easier to produce the large quantities required by an expanding nation.

During the twentieth century, coal mining experienced further changes. Unions developed and later declined. Mechanization changed the way that coal was mined. New laws placed greater emphasis on miners’ safety and the reclamation of mined land. With mechanization and declining markets, mining families moved north in search of steady work.

Today, rapidly changing coal-mining technology signals dramatic change in the industry’s future. But understanding the past helps us build bridges from the present to the future. And one aspect of the coal-mining past that is currently being re-examined is the role of coal towns.

In recent years, the Jesse Stuart Foundation has made a significant contribution to understanding Appalachian coal towns by publishing Clyde Roy Pack’s memoir, "Muddy Branch," which is about Thealka in Johnson County and "Bankmules" by James E. Vaughan, the story of Van Lear, also in Johnson County. We have also published three books by James R. Goode which comment on the International Harvester coal camp at Benham, in Harlan County.

Now comes "Coal Towns" by Crandall A. Shifflett, a comprehensive and scholarly study of life, work, and culture in company towns of Southern Appalachia. Shifflett’s work helps to provide a broader context for individual studies and memoirs. It is a must for regional libraries and a solid addition to personal libraries, too.

Integrating oral histories, company records, and census data, Shifflett paints a vivid portrait of miners and their families in Southern Appalachian coal towns from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.

Challenging the myth of an Edenic, preindustrial Appalachia, "Coal Towns" allows the reader to view mining life from the perspective of the workers themselves. What the families recall about the coal towns contradicts the popular image of mining life. Most miners did not owe their souls to the company store, and mining companies were not always harsh taskmasters. Former miners and their families remember such company benefits as indoor plumbing, regular income, leisure activities, and educational opportunities for children.

Shifflett reveals that, far from being mere victims of historical forces, miners and their families shaped their own destiny by forging a new working-class culture that had many continuities with previous ways of life. Shifflett recognizes the dangers and hardships of the coal-town existence but also shows the resilience of Appalachian people in adapting their culture to a new industrial environment.

Shiffllett is not an apologist for the coal companies, but he does challenge the firmly established idea that Appalachian families were always disadvantaged when they moved from the farms to the coal camps. This theme is strongly reinforced in memoirs by Clyde Roy Pack and James E. Vaughan.

Books on coal camp life are among the thousands of titles available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation Bookstore, 1645 Winchester Avenue in downtown Ashland. For more information, call (606) 326-1667.