The Shadow of the Mine

Coal and the End of Industrial Britain

Ray Hudson, Huw Beynon

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Hardback

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English

Bloomsbury Publishing
28 September 2021

No one personified the age of industry more than the miners. The Shadow of the Mine tells the story of King Coal in its heyday – and what happened to mining communities after the last pits closed.

Coal was central to the British economy, powering its factories and railways. It carried political weight, too. In the eighties the miners risked everything in a year-long strike against Thatcher’s shutdowns. Defeat foretold the death of their industry. Tens of thousands were cast onto the labour market with a minimum amount of advice and support.

Yet British politics all of a sudden revolves around the coalfield constituencies that lent their votes to Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in 2019. Even in the Welsh Valleys, where the ‘red wall’ still stands, support for the Labour Party has halved in a generation.

Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson draw on decades of research to chronicle these momentous changes through the words of the people who lived through them.

By: Ray Hudson, Huw Beynon
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 33mm
Weight: 618g
ISBN: 9781839761553
ISBN 10: 1839761555
Pages: 416
Publication Date: 28 September 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Huw Beynon is Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences at Cardiff University and author of, among other things, Working for Ford, which has become a classic. Ray Hudson is Professor of Geography at the University of Durham and a decorated member of the Royal Geographical Society. His books include Approaches to Economic Geography, winner of the Regional Studies Association Best Book Award 2017.

Reviews for The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the End of Industrial Britain

Brilliant ... [Beynon and Hudson's] analysis of the decline of British coal mining, and its social and political effects, is required reading for those who would speak for this working class. -David Egerton, Times Literary Supplement The Shadow of the Mine reminds us why this spirit [of solidarity and collectivism] has lived on in the coalfields, in spite of people feeling a sense of political betrayal going back decades ... enlightening. -Conrad Landin, Guardian Refreshing and necessary ... [The Shadow of the Mine] explains in loving, careful detail why working people's relationship with Labour in former industrial communities ... had become complex and ultimately soured. -Laura Pidcock, Red Pepper Beynon and Hudson ... write with authority and respect of the former mining communities of Britain. -John Lloyd, Financial Times Starmer and his allies in Renaissance would do better to pick up a copy of The Shadow of the Mine ... As Beynon and Hudson make clear, the succession of defeats inflicted on the trade unions over the last four decades has brought about the gradual fragmentation of old loyalties. -Tom Blackburn, Tribune