The Face of Decline: The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region in the Twentieth Century

by Thomas Dublin, Walter Licht

The anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania once prospered. Today, very little mining or industry remains, although residents have made valiant efforts to restore the fabric of their communities. In The Face of Decline , the noted historians Thomas Dublin and Walter Licht offer a sweeping history of this area over the course of the twentieth century. Combining business, labor, social, political, and environmental history, Dublin and Licht delve into coal communities to explore grassroots ethnic life and labor activism, economic revitalization, and the varied impact of economic decline across generations of mining families. The Face of Decline also features the responses to economic crisis of organized capital and labor, local business elites, redevelopment agencies, and state and federal governments. Dublin and Licht draw on a remarkable range of oral histories and survey questionnaires; documentary photographs; the records of coal companies, local governments, and industrial development corporations; federal censuses; and community newspapers. The authors examine the impact of enduring economic decline across a wide region but focus especially on a small group of mining communities in the region's Panther Valley, from Jim Thorpe through Lansford to Tamaqua. The authors also place the anthracite region within a broader conceptual framework, comparing anthracite's decline to parallel developments in European coal basins and Appalachia and to deindustrialization in the United States more generally.

Genres: History, American History

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 17, 2005

Reviews

[Kelli Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dublin and Licht trace the rise and fall of the anthracite region. The authors argue that the economic swings in this region are better understood in a longer view of history and that this view provides readers with a better understanding of our current economic issues. The authors focus on the responses of various groups of people to see how the decline in employment in the anthracite region impacted the community.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was anxious to read this history of the Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Region because my family was forced to move from Schuylkill County in the early 1950's because of economic conditions. I always thought the coal mines started to struggle after World War II, but the seeds of decline were there earlier. In 1917 there were 156,148 workers in the Anthracite coal industry, the high point. In 1950 there were 75,231, and in the year 2000 the numbers bottomed out at 945. The authors present studies of the effect on the population, the demographics of workers, women getting into the work force, migration out of the area and then the impact on the next generations, many of whom left the area for higher education and never returned. Current business activities in the Anthracite Region include reclamation of mined areas, using abandoned mining areas as trash disposal sites and prisons. An article in the Schuylkill Economic Development Corporation newsletter touted the benefit to the local community of having prisons. The story emphasized the prisons' contribution to the hospitality industry in the county, as families and friends visited inmates in the prisons, staying at area motels and eating in area restaurants. Wow. This is a fascinating book, perhaps particularly so for someone who had lived there.

[Cyrus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly good history specific to the Anthracite industry. Not really limited to twentieth century decline, but superb on that period. Longer review to follow.