King Coal explores the lives of coal miners in early 20th century America. The story follows a privileged student who takes a job as a miner to gain firsthand experience of harsh conditions and mistreatment of workers. The protagonist is shocked by what he discovers and becomes an advocate for the miners, leading them in their fight against the mine owners and the political system that supports them. Sinclair’s writing style is known for its vivid descriptions and its ability to bring to life the characters and their struggles. Like much of his work, King Coal is a fictitious account of real issues. The novel is based on the author’s research in Colorado during the coal strikes of 1913–14, and is considered a classic of the muckraking genre that exposed the social and economic problems of the time. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

King Coal (1917) is to the mining world what Sinclair's "The Jungle" is to the meat-packing industry. Through protagonist Hal Warner, Sinclair reveals the abuses faced by immigrant mine workers in the coal fields of the western United States

The town of Ladysmith was one of the most important coal-mining communities on Vancouver Island during the early twentieth century. The Ladysmith miners had a reputation for radicalism and militancy and engaged in bitter struggles for union recognition and economic justice, most notably during the Great Strike of 1912-14. This strike, one of the longest and most violent labour disputes in Canadian history, marked a watershed in the history of the town and the coal industry. When Coal Was King illuminates the origins of the 1912-14 strike by examining the development of the coal industry on Vancouver Island, the founding of Ladysmith, the experience of work and safety in the mines, the process of political and economic mobilization, and how these factors contributed to the development of identity and community. While the Vancouver Island coal industry and the strike have been the focus of a number of popular histories, this book goes beyond to emphasize the importance of class, ethnicity, gender, and community in creating the conditions for the emergence and mobilization of the working-class population. Informed by currend academic debates on the matter and within the discipline, this readable history takes into account extensive archival research, and will appeal to historians and others interested in the history of Vancouver Island.

In writing this account of the rise and decline of the coal industry and its effects on the health of the miners, of those who worked with coal products and of almost all of us who have breathed in the pollution from its combustion, Professor Seaton points to the often hidden adverse consequences of transformative technologies.

The son of a prominent coal magnate, Hal Warner is horrified by the dangerous working conditions, long hours, and starvation wages endured by the men who toil in his family's mines. He tries to rouse other members of his privileged class to a similar state of indignation, but soon faces a much more severe test of his progressivism. When a labor group organizes a massive strike and the mining companies respond with punishing brutality, Hal's commitment to the cause of reform becomes a matter of life and death.

Contextualizing the Case : Central Appalachia --Micro-Level Processes and Social Movement Participation -- The Depletion of Social Capital in Coalfield Communities -- Identity and Environmental Justice Movement Participation -- Cognitive Liberation and Coal Industry Ideology -- Cognitive Liberation and Hidden Destruction in Central Appalachia -- Photovoice in Five Coalfield Communities -- Becoming, and Un-Becoming, an Activist.