"A stimulating and lucid reassessment of a major area of US labor history....This is an excellent example of historical economics."--Business History "A fascinating piece of iconoclasm. Fishback brings to bear an impressive range of evidence and argument....This cliometric investigation is one that anyone interested in labor economics, labor relations, or the coal industry should read."--Industrial and Labor Relations Review "An excellent quantitative history of an important subject, effectively combining economic theory and empirical analysis. An important source for researchers, it should also provide a valuable case study for teachers of economic history or the economics of organizations."--Journal of Economic Literature "Students of labor relations in the turn-of-the-century coal industry will find Soft Coal, Hard Choices an invaluable reference. But it deserves to be read more broadly, for it provides a compelling demonstration of the value of the economists' analytical tools for understanding labor history."--Journal of Economic History "Price Fishback insists that economic organizations of all kinds, including even coal mining and company towns, can and should be examined in a disciplined way. His facinating treatment breathes new life into these issues and will be of interest to students of labor and economic organization alike."--Oliver E. Williamson, iversity of California, Berkeley "A stimulating and lucid reassessment of a major area of US labor history....This is an excellent example of historical economics."--Business History "A fascinating piece of iconoclasm. Fishback brings to bear an impressive range of evidence and argument....This cliometric investigation is one that anyone interested in labor economics, labor relations, or the coal industry should read."--Industrial and Labor Relations Review "An excellent quantitative history of an important subject, effectively combining economic theory and empirical analysis. An important source for researchers, it should also provide a valuable case study for teachers of economic history or the economics of organizations."--Journal of Economic Literature "Students of labor relations in the turn-of-the-century coal industry will find Soft Coal, Hard Choices an invaluable reference. But it deserves to be read more broadly, for it provides a compelling demonstration of the value of the economists' analytical tools for understanding labor history."--Journal of Economic History "Price Fishback insists that economic organizations of all kinds, including even coal mining and company towns, can and should be examined in a disciplined way. His facinating treatment breathes new life into these issues and will be of interest to students of labor and economic organization alike."--Oliver E. Williamson, iversity of California, Berkeley "The author's detailed empirical analysis adds a significant dimension to the historical studies of coal mining in the US."--Choice "First-rate economics and first-rate history, the yield of ten years of mining. It uses a remarkable range of sources to retell the story of coal, from miner's letters to advanced econometrics. The evidence is overwhelming that the miners were not pathetic victims portrayed in some folklore but tough men with hard choices. Anyone who wants to understand American labor and industrial history needs to get it and read it. It's a lesson in economics and a course in history, an instant classic in the field."--Donald N. McCloskey, e University of Iowa "[Fishback] raises important and interesting questions about the reality of life in the coal fields during the early part of this century."--Labor History "This book is a major contribution to an important area of labour history. The data presented in it provides a welcome context for the many narrative histories of the period, and Fishback's quantitative approach has resulted in a number of refreshing new insights. The text is also highly readable and thoroughly referenced"--Labour/Le Travail "[A] provocatively written analysis....This book warrants reading, and has a definite place in labor historiography and labor economics."--Monthly Labor Review "Will surely stand as the classic work on the subject."-- Growth and Change "An excellent and most welcome book....Brings a breath of fresh air into an area that has been the subject of romantic conjecture for too long."--Business History Review, Autumn 1993