Coal Cultures

Coal Cultures is ambitious in its scope, interesting in its detail and very enjoyable to read. Derrick Price brings his formidable scholarship to explore the sophisticated dynamics of the cultures in and around that seemingly most basic of all commodities, coal. To do so within a complex global context is impressive. --National Museum Wales - Paul Cabuts, Honorary Research Fellow at Amguedffa Cymru In Coal Cultures, Derrick Price tracks the long history of visual culture around coal production, livelihoods and impacts, starting with 16th century woodprints of mining technology. ... This is a comprehensive survey of visual approaches to finding meaning in coal landscapes and lifestyles: from othering to humanising its people, and from seeing ruin to order in its landscapes. ... Price digs nicely into gender issues here, including photos of women miners and the exploring the persistence of sexualisation and sexism they faced. --Visual Studies Coal Cultures offers a valuable overview of the intersections between mining and visual culture, illustrating how our understanding of the industry and its impact has been shaped by its depiction. In going beyond the work ofmining itself to explore the communities and landscapes shaped by that labour, Price demonstrates that photography and visual culture can be useful means to establish how labour, society and the environment are interlinked. The book assembles a considerable range of material that will appeal to those with interests in both mining and visual culture, as well as their relationship to heritage and the environment. --History of Photography Price has most definitely succeeded in providing a fascinating and highly stimulating cultural-history analysis of the various representations (both photographic/visual and metaphorical) of the coal industry, its environmental legacy, coalfield communities, and its industrial heritage. It deserves to be widely read. --History Workshop Journal