Few components of labour background have bought as a lot consciousness because the coal undefined, with miners usually discovering themselves on the centre of reviews on working-class political and business background. but when a lot has been written in regards to the struggles of miners and their unions particularly nations, their nationwide confrontations and political association, less paintings has been performed at the nearby groups and the way they comparable either to the nationwide and foreign photo. The imperative subject of this quantity is to go beyond such over-arching nationwide types and to concentration as a substitute on neighborhood coal mining societies which may then be in comparison and contrasted to comparable groups somewhere else. In so doing the publication is ready to take on a couple of commonly used labour historical past topics in a extra nuanced approach, exploring problems with political activism and sophistication relationships from the views of gender, ethnicity, race and particular localized cultural traditions. because the chapters during this quantity illustrate, such an technique can supply wealthy and infrequently mind-blowing conclusions, in lots of situations not easy the authorized proposal of miners because the forefront of militant working-class political activism. Adopting a local procedure that compares coalfield groups from 5 continents, this quantity displays coalfield studies on a really worldwide scale. via taking a look at what made groups certain in addition to what they shared in universal, a far fuller figuring out of the office, neighbourhood, kin, id and political association is feasible. Underlining the powerful connections among politics, group and identification, this paintings emphasizes the demanding situations and possibilities to be had to labour historians, pushing ahead the bounds of the self-discipline in new and interesting ways.