Product Description

The fascinating, often surprising story of how a simple black rock has altered the course of history. . Prized as "the best stone in Britain" by Roman invaders who carved jewelry out of it, coal has transformed societies, powered navies, fueled economies, and expanded frontiers. It made China a twelfth-century superpower, inspired the writing of the Communist Manifesto, and helped the northern states win the American Civil War. Yet the mundane mineral that built our global economy -and even today powers our electrical plants-has also caused death, disease, and environmental destruction. As early as 1306, King Edward I tried to ban coal (unsuccessfully) because its smoke became so obnoxious. Its recent identification as a primary cause of global warming has made it a cause clbre of a new kind. In this remarkable book, Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins three hundred million years ago and spans the globe. From the "Great Stinking Fogs" of London to the rat-infested coal mines of Pennsylvania, from the impoverished slums of Manchester to the toxic city streets of Beijing, Coal is a captivating narrative about an ordinary substance that has done extraordinary things-a simple black rock that could well determine our fate as a species.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1574333 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Sunday Express
"…beautifully written…Freese and her publishers should be applauded…a triumph of content over image and style."

Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States
'enthralling... Her style is engaging, her research impressive, her message an important one.''

Ross Gelbspan, author of The Heat is On
'illuminating, often startling... An egaging book, with surprises on virtually every page.'

Customer Reviews

A Well Written Book on an Unusual Subject.
This book concentrates on the impact of coal on human history and development, written by an impartial observer (an assistant attorney-general of Minnesota who began to research the impact of coal for her job). It was a real eye-opener, and illustrated that the pollution of the environment started a long time before the Industrial Revolution. A fantastic piece of social history. Highly recommended.

good in parts but ultimately unsatisfying
This book is great in parts where it concentrates on what it suggests it is doing by telling the story and weighing the significance of coal - but the middle bit is dominated by a polemic on the inherent dangers of climate change such that it goes off at a tangent and completely destroys the shape of the narrative, leaving big holes and a strong suggestion that the whole book was conceived simply to deliver this. It's not as if anyone needs telling about climate change and it ruins a worthwhile idea. A pity.

not what you might expect
This book does not live up to its title - for anyone expecting a Coal version of Yergins "Prize" or Kurlansky's "Salt" or "Cod" they will be sorely dissappointed. This is a book which appears to have been written to suit the authors green ideals and not to map the history of coal.