Black Gold: The History of How Coal Made Britain

Product Information

Mining in general, and coal mining in particular is one of those subjects that somehow fascinates me for reasons I don't clearly understand. I think it is something to do with the horror and wonder of the industry; the danger, the long term impacts, the communities that build up around mines, the vile impact of unfettered capitalism that made many fabulously rich whilst killing those tasked with digging this filthy commodity out of the ground. I was also fortunate enough, in my youth, to be able to descend into a copper mine in Zambia which was a fascinating experience - the descent in a cage, the heat, the noise etc. Mining therefore became one of a collection of subjects that both fascinates and repels me. Middle Eastern oil-producing countries disliking us. Escalating fuel costs and steadily decreasing supplies. Global warming and massive pollution. Are we all doomed, or what?

Could that privatisation have saved the industry? Only if the demand had been there, and the mines had been able to supply it at a competitive price. But the simple fact – mentioned by Paxman rather occasionally, and never properly investigated – is that most British coal mining had not been competitive for a long time.

From the bestselling historian and acclaimed broadcaster

From that glad, confident morning onwards, the story is one of managed, or mismanaged, decline. In the 1960s, under the Labour politician Alf Robens, the number of pits fell from nearly 700 to 292, and the number of miners was slashed, from 583,000 to 283,000. Much of this was inevitable, as railways shifted to diesel, and electricity generation moved to oil, gas and nuclear. King Coal had been dethroned.

Laura Obuobi’s empowering, whimsical text and London Ladd’s lustrous, captivating illustrations will inspire children to love themselves exactly as they are. Running through this book are themes of Aboriginal empowerment, identity, integration, resistance, social disruption and communication.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Germany and Japan learned the hard way that running out of oil is for losers. Everyone knows this today. U.S. presidents have poured trillions of dollars into maintaining control of oil, whilst jabbering about freedom, democracy, and weapons of mass destruction. For some mysterious reason, millions of Middle Eastern folks now loath and detest the U.S. And then we come to the most dreadful woman in Britain's political history and her brutal vindictive and duplicitous behaviour is starkly brought into the light. Alas her abhorrent politics continues to loom large in a Britain that is going the same way as coal has. It is exciting to me that no matter how much machinery replaces the horse, the work it can do is still measured in horsepower ... even in the new age. And although a riding horse often weighs half a ton and a big drafter a full ton, either can be led about by a piece of string if he has been wisely trained. This to me is a constant source of wonder and challenge." This quote was from an article about Henry published in the Washington Post on November 28, 1997, in response to a query about her drive to write about horses. I found the writing style to be generally readable although the economic bits were a little dry and there were some odd figurative phrases. Paxman's trademark acerbic observations, particularly of politicians, are in evidence. The book includes notes, illustrations and an index. Elegantly written and often very funny, this book is studded with acidic character sketches. The footnotes alone are worth reading and tell us, for example, that London’s remaining 1,300 gas lamps are tended by four lighters who travel on motorbikes. At times, Paxman’s capacity to combine confident generalisation with vivid detail reminded me of A J P Taylor, though I suspect that this might be partly because some of his historical knowledge does, in fact, derive from Taylor’s work. Paxman also has a Taylor-esque propensity to skate over awkward complexities that might slow the pace of the narrative.

In Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabis are a sect that perceives most of modernity as pure evil. They don’t look fondly on the lavish lifestyles of the ruling Saud family. Marrin asserts that the government agreed to subsidize the spread of Wahhabi schools into other regions. In exchange for this funding, the Wahhabis agreed not to make trouble in Arabia — but trouble anywhere else was OK. “In short, Saudi oil profits fueled terrorism.”

Read Jeff Rubin’s book, The Big Flatline. You’ll learn that the production of top quality anthracite coal peaked in 1950, and grade B bituminous coal peaked in 1990. There is abundant grade C coal, lignite, which is especially filthy to burn. Since lignite is so low in energy, it cannot be shipped long distances profitably. It is absurd to use 100 calories of diesel to haul 100 calories of low quality coal.