Black Gold: The History of How Coal Made Britain

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I don't even know where to begin with this. Maybe I should start with the fact that I wouldn't have read this had it not been a Battle of the Books book, and even then, it was one I was forced to read because no one else wanted to. I really wish that I could have turned around and said that this book wasn't as bad as every thought, but, sadly, that is not the case.

Beginning with a geologic- and chemical-related exploration of how -- over millions of years -- coal, oil, and natural gas has come to be, Albert Marrin provides a mind-blowing scientific, economic, sociological, environmental, and geopolitical history of the petroleum-based energy resources that are the core of our modern civilization and the core of our civilization's most intractable problems and conflicts. Jeremy Paxman is particularly good at explaining why coal mattered so much. Starting with the coal ships that brought thousands of tons of the stuff from Newcastle to 17th-century London, he describes how it drove the industrial revolution, how it fuelled locomotives and battleships, how lighting from coal-gas transformed streets and homes, and how collieries sprang up all over the country, employing at their peak more than a million men. There is overall sympathy for the workers and the exploitative owners are shown in their true colours. The horrors of the early days in the pits comes over vividly and the various catastrophes that the workers had to endure, and that the owners walked away from with the tiniest slap on the wrists, is described in such a way as to make the reader sad and angry.

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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.

Fred Cahir tells the story about the magnitude of Aboriginal involvement on the Victorian goldfields in the middle of the nineteenth century. Readers also learn that the U.S. has huge coal reserves, enough for 250 years at the current rate of consumption. To understand why this is a meaningless statement, watch one of the many versions of Albert Bartlett’s famous lecture, Arithmetic, Population, and Energy on YouTube. Every student and teacher should watch it. In vivid detail it describes how Aboriginal people often figured significantly in the search for gold and documents the devastating social impact of gold mining on Victorian Aboriginal communities. It reveals the complexity of their involvement from passive presence, to active discovery, to shunning the goldfields. 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.Albert Marrin's timely book starts out explaining what oil is and where is comes from, then moves into its impact on the world, particularly how it relates to warfare, both in the sense that more oil reserves make for a better army and in the sense that countries are willing to go to war to get more. The book also discusses the problems with oil--such as natural disasters and the dwindling supply and concludes by discussing some possible alternatives to relying on oil and the pros and cons of each. Inspired by a true story, Marguerite Henry continues her literary tradition of showcasing a love of horse (and mule) flesh for young Laura Obuobi’s empowering, whimsical text and London Ladd’s lustrous, captivating illustrations will inspire children to love themselves exactly as they are.

The narrative covers all this, as well as the push for nationalisation, then de-nationalisation when it was clear the industry was on its knees and the rise of mining Unions, in particular the NUM. It was beyond the scope of this book but I am interested in, to what extent, the NUM contributed to the demise of mining in the UK by their strike in 1984. I am looking into this time in industrial history a lot more closely now, as it mentioned in this book, Scargill was pretty much correct in everything he said. Indeed, there was a government plan to shut pits. There was a smear campaign against him personally and the Union in general, the government set about destroying not only the NUM, but subsequently the UDM too, they marshaled the police to fight the miners and on and on. Thatcher was truly, truly, a pernicious politician who is still revered on the right, despite basically destroying much of society of which she infamously claimed that there was "no such thing". But was the decline of coal mining inevitable anyway? We learn that it was because of the eighteenth century need for bright and safe lighting fuel, and because of the rapidly depleting supply of whales for whale oil, and because it was discovered that kerosene could be extracted from petroleum, that smart and ambitious "Colonel" Edwin L. Drake was hired by a business group to drill for oil on Oil Creek in Titusville, Pennsylvania (a stream known for its oil seeps).Marguerite Henry (April 13, 1902-November 26, 1997) was an American writer. The author of fifty-nine books based on true stories of horses and other animals, her work has captivated entire generations of children and young adults and won several Newbery Awards and Honors. Among the more famous of her works was Misty of Chincoteague, which was the basis for the 1961 movie Misty, and several sequel books. The town buzzed with excitement, and smelled to high heaven, thanks to all that oil. 'The whole place,' a visitor said, 'smelled like a corps of soldiers when they have diarrhea.'" My favorite part of the book was the history of nations and wars over/with/because of oil. As a young child I remember the oil cruch in 1973, and in hearing about the Iran controversery with Ayatollah Khomeini coming into power, then the American hostages held for 444 days, their release shortly after Ronald Regean became president, and the Iran/Iraq War. At the time I was too young to understand much; but this book put it all into perspective. I understand more of the role of OPEC and Saudia Arabia and what we as citizens of this world need to do to find new energy sources. In 1947, she published Misty of Chincoteague and it was an instant success. Later, this book—as well as Justin Morgan had a Horse and Brighty of the Grand Canyon—were made into movies.

from all the ‘players’ in a ‘Special’ story that started in the early 1970s and went through to the end of 1986 with Ayrton I also recall, whilst in college, the miners strike of 1984/5. In my youth I didn't understand politics or sociology and was an immensely privileged, obnoxious right winger who was firmly on the side of the government in that struggle. Suffice it to say I owe to miners in general, and Scargill in particular, an apology. My world view is 180 degrees away from that I held in my 20s and I now deplore conservative ideology in general, and Thatcherism in particular which has led, pretty directly to the decline in public sector services and general social infrastructure currently afflicting the UK, exacerbated by BREXIT of course. But I digress. It wasn't an exhaustive history and some aspects were dwelt on for longer than others - naval developments had much more coverage than railways and I was surprised that the traditional birthplace of the industrial revolution in Shropshire didn't get much of a mention. The technological developments were nonetheless covered in detail, along with the experience of working in mines (I had no idea there was a ballot for soldiers to work in the mines during wartime) and the changes in legislation and ownership of the UK industry. 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. 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.”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. 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.