Early History of the British Coal Industry

Abstract

THE above work is in many respects a very remarkable one. First of all it is sufficiently curious that a professor in the heart of the United States, in Chicago, which is not even a coalmining centre, should concern himself with a study of the coal industry of Great Britain. The material which the author has made use of is also very remarkable both for the extent of the resources of which he has availed himself and of those which he has overlooked. He himself admits in his preface that he has not made as much use as he might have done of the important work by Messrs. Ashton and Syke, “Coal Industry of the Eighteenth Century”; he appears to have entirely overlooked that valuable compilation “Historical Review of Coal Mining”, published by the Mining Association of Great Britain in 1925 in connexion with the Wembley Exhibition, and he has not made any really effective use of the very valuable collection of manuscripts and other documents in the possession of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers.

The Rise of the British Coal Industry.

By Prof. J. U. Nef. In 2 Vols. (London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London): Studies in Economic and Social History.) Vol. 1. Pp. xiv + 448 + 14 plates. Vol. 2. Pp. vii + 490. (London: George Rout-ledge and Sons, Ltd., 1932.) 42s. net.