Developing initially out of a conference commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the United Mine Workers of America, this collection of essays evaluates the history of the union and its contribution to the labor movement. Founded by white, Anglo-Saxon pick miners in 1890, the UMWA had become by World War I the largest, most powerful, and in many ways the most progressive labor organization in the American Federation of Labor.

Its critical influence is shown in its pioneering role in the development of industrial unionism, in its efforts at interracial and interethnic organizing, and in its indispensable role in founding and guiding the CIO between 1935 and 1955.

The essays - most commissioned especially for this volume - also examine the impact of mechanization on the coal industry, issues of health, safety, and company control, ethnic and race relations among the miners, the long-neglected role of women in coal-mining communities, and the influence of the leadership of John Mitchell and John L. Lewis. The final section looks at the UMWA's efforts to renew itself as a democratic and dynamic organization in recent decades.