History is inevitably written from the standpoint of contemporary political and historiographical challenges. The near destruction of the coal industry and of the NUM offers a timely vantage point from which to appraise their history. The events of the last decade necessarily point towards criticism of the easy assumption of miners' solidarity and the cosy identification with Labour Party loyalty which has characterised much of the labour history of British mining.

Some more recent work on miners and their unions has moved away from such stereotypical imagery and examined particular regions and communities.

This collection of specially commissioned essays by leading authorities on miners' history seeks to build on such individual contributions by first examining the politics of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, the unique influences of syndicalism and communism within some of its constituent areas, and the uneven pace of the Labour Party's 'forward march' within the coal-fields.

In the second part of the book, such national developments are studied within their diverse regional contexts through a series of case studies which permits comparison between the major British coalfields. Finally, the book considers the attempts to overcome these regional diversities with the formation of the National Union of Mineworkers and the nationalisation of the mining industry.