John H. M. Laslett, ed., The United Mine Workers of America: A Model of Industrial Solidarity? University Park: The Pennsylvania State University, 1996. vii + 576 pp. $65.00 cloth. Daniel Letwin, The Challenge of Interracial Unionism: Alabama Coal Miners, 1878–1921. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. ix + 289 pp. $49.95 cloth; $19.95 paper.

Abstract

Soon after its founding by white, Anglo coal diggers in Ohio in 1890, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) rose to occupy a position of preeminence and leadership in the American labor movement. Indeed, during the twentieth century it led many important progressive struggles, most notably in developing industrial unionism, establishing collective bargaining in the nation's industrial life through the achievements of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and attempting to organize workers across racial and ethnic lines. Further, the UMWA's leaders and colorful militants—John Mitchell, John L. Lewis, Richard Trumpka, “Mother Jones,” and many others—figure prominently in US labor history. Evaluating the history of the UMWA and its contributions to the labor movement is a worthwhile task. Moreover, those who would understand American labor history in this century must begin with the United Mine Workers.