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Black Gold: The Rise, Reign, and Fall of American Coal
Coal's central role in America's history and its ongoing threats in the climate crisis.
For decades coal has been crucial to America's culture, society, and environment, an essential ingredient in driving out winter's cold, cooking meals, and lighting the dark. In the coalfields and beyond, Bob Wyss describes how this magical elixir sparked the Industrial Revolution, powered railroads, and built urban skylines, while providing home comforts for families.
Coal's history and heritage are fundamental to understanding its legacy of threats to America's well-being. As industry developed so did clashes between powerful tycoons, coal miners, and innocent families. Exploitation and avarice led to victimization, deadly violence, and ultimately the American labor movement. More recently coal has endangered American lives and safety, brought on by two centuries of carbon combustion, and here the threat remains unresolved. This is coal's most enduring legacy, and Black Gold is pivotal in helping us understand how we got to this point.
For decades coal has been crucial to America's culture, society, and environment, an essential ingredient in driving out winter's cold, cooking meals, and lighting the dark. In the coalfields and beyond, Bob Wyss describes how this magical elixir sparked the Industrial Revolution, powered railroads, and built urban skylines, while providing home comforts for families.
Coal's history and heritage are fundamental to understanding its legacy of threats to America's well-being. As industry developed so did clashes between powerful tycoons, coal miners, and innocent families. Exploitation and avarice led to victimization, deadly violence, and ultimately the American labor movement. More recently coal has endangered American lives and safety, brought on by two centuries of carbon combustion, and here the threat remains unresolved. This is coal's most enduring legacy, and Black Gold is pivotal in helping us understand how we got to this point.
312 pages, Hardcover
Published September 23, 2025
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October 20, 2025If I were to mention the words “black gold” you might picture oil (Thank you, Beverly Hillbillies).
But the original black gold was coal and it is the title of this engrossing book by journalist Bob Wyss.
Black Gold: The Rise, Reign, and Fall of American Coal takes readers on a journey that begins in the 1700s when explorers and surveyors found massive seems of exposed coal deposits along the Appalachians. And it is coal that created the America we live in today. As Wyss writes:
Coal was the magic elixir that fueled American’s Industrial Revolution. It powered the nation’s railroads, and those railroads delivered coal to the rest of the country. No corporation better represented that bond then the Pennsylvania Railroad, which grew to become the biggest, most powerful privately controlled force in the nation.
Coal and railroads were the yin and yang of industrialization. Coal was needed to forge the steel that expanded the reach of railroads and 65% of the cargo carried by trains was coal. Most early railways were built primarily to carry coal, not people. And the Pennsylvania Railroad become so large that its budget was second only in size to the US government.
The plight of of miners is painful to read about. The numerous coal mine disasters, the dead numbering in the hundreds at a time. In Centralia, Illinois, 111 miners died in 1947 from an explosion that could have been avoided had management simply heeded warnings and actually cared about its employees. But the owners of the mines, the first wave of massively wealthy Americans, did not care about workers. So coal also fueled the rise of unions and epic, ongoing battles between workers and management.
The book is organized chronologically. We begin by learning the origins of coal — a process that began more than 300 million years ago from the remains of ancient swamps and vegetation compressed over the ages into carbon. We also learn the different types of coals, such as coke and anthracite and why these hotter-burning forms of coal led to the production of steel, which led to train tracks and the infrastructure of the county. We get to know JP Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. And their stories of insatiable greed will ring eerily familiar to the exploits of our current crop of billionaires. And, yes, government was largely bought and paid for as well.
And then there is the smoke. Growing up, I felt like I received a better education about the smoke in London than in my hometown of St. Louis, which was so shrouded in pollution that in November 1939, visibility was less than two feet and the polar bears in the St. Louis zoo turned the color of brown grizzlies. St. Louis was far from alone. Wyss writes:
For more than a century, many cities across America had struggled with often dense clouds of smoke from coal burning. Most citizens shrugged off the pollution, accepting it as a price of commerce and industry. In New York City, smoke sometimes obscured the Statue of Liberty from the shores of the battery.
In this book I discovered the origin of Mother Jones, the Molly Maguires and why the Frick Museum carries that name. I only wish we could have learned more about the animals who played a role in the rise of coal, like the pit ponies and the canaries (sold to miners in company stores).
Coal is still very much in use today; there are roughly 200 power plants still using coal right now. But it is no longer a major employer. In 2020, just 63,000 people worked in mining vs. more than 800,000 in 1923. Anyone who thinks coal represents the “good ol’ days” should read this book; it is a powerful reminder of how many people suffered and died to power a country and keep it warm during the winter.
NOTE: This review was first posted on www.EcoLitBooks.com.
But the original black gold was coal and it is the title of this engrossing book by journalist Bob Wyss.
Black Gold: The Rise, Reign, and Fall of American Coal takes readers on a journey that begins in the 1700s when explorers and surveyors found massive seems of exposed coal deposits along the Appalachians. And it is coal that created the America we live in today. As Wyss writes:
Coal was the magic elixir that fueled American’s Industrial Revolution. It powered the nation’s railroads, and those railroads delivered coal to the rest of the country. No corporation better represented that bond then the Pennsylvania Railroad, which grew to become the biggest, most powerful privately controlled force in the nation.
Coal and railroads were the yin and yang of industrialization. Coal was needed to forge the steel that expanded the reach of railroads and 65% of the cargo carried by trains was coal. Most early railways were built primarily to carry coal, not people. And the Pennsylvania Railroad become so large that its budget was second only in size to the US government.
The plight of of miners is painful to read about. The numerous coal mine disasters, the dead numbering in the hundreds at a time. In Centralia, Illinois, 111 miners died in 1947 from an explosion that could have been avoided had management simply heeded warnings and actually cared about its employees. But the owners of the mines, the first wave of massively wealthy Americans, did not care about workers. So coal also fueled the rise of unions and epic, ongoing battles between workers and management.
The book is organized chronologically. We begin by learning the origins of coal — a process that began more than 300 million years ago from the remains of ancient swamps and vegetation compressed over the ages into carbon. We also learn the different types of coals, such as coke and anthracite and why these hotter-burning forms of coal led to the production of steel, which led to train tracks and the infrastructure of the county. We get to know JP Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. And their stories of insatiable greed will ring eerily familiar to the exploits of our current crop of billionaires. And, yes, government was largely bought and paid for as well.
And then there is the smoke. Growing up, I felt like I received a better education about the smoke in London than in my hometown of St. Louis, which was so shrouded in pollution that in November 1939, visibility was less than two feet and the polar bears in the St. Louis zoo turned the color of brown grizzlies. St. Louis was far from alone. Wyss writes:
For more than a century, many cities across America had struggled with often dense clouds of smoke from coal burning. Most citizens shrugged off the pollution, accepting it as a price of commerce and industry. In New York City, smoke sometimes obscured the Statue of Liberty from the shores of the battery.
In this book I discovered the origin of Mother Jones, the Molly Maguires and why the Frick Museum carries that name. I only wish we could have learned more about the animals who played a role in the rise of coal, like the pit ponies and the canaries (sold to miners in company stores).
Coal is still very much in use today; there are roughly 200 power plants still using coal right now. But it is no longer a major employer. In 2020, just 63,000 people worked in mining vs. more than 800,000 in 1923. Anyone who thinks coal represents the “good ol’ days” should read this book; it is a powerful reminder of how many people suffered and died to power a country and keep it warm during the winter.
NOTE: This review was first posted on www.EcoLitBooks.com.
November 12, 2025
A great exploration of American coal’s origins and usage, following it through its burgeoning rise, violent heyday, and its subsequent downfall, as well as it’s intense intertwinement with the nation’s railroads and steel manufacturers. The rise takes particular interest in the Anthracite fields of northeastern Pennsylvania, a region I’ve been to and have firsthand seen the long lasting effects of the coal industry through its life and heavy decline, even having been inside a mine that’s been converted into a museum. The novel also delves deeply into the vice and sins brought about by the usage of coal, from the environmental impacts (both historically and in the present day), to the greed and corruption from industrial leaders who struck down strikers and established the infamous company-towns. Anyone interested in the topic of American history, industry will find this book to be great reference on the subject matter, especially as coal burning becomes further removed from our society.
February 19, 2026
Very informative history on coal. Good use of stories intertwined to tell the story of American Coal. Felt a bit choppy and scattered at some places, but good use of Centralia No. 5 accident to start and end book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews