Coal: A Human History

Freese, Barbara. Coal: A Human History. New York City: Perseus Publishing, 2003. New York City: Basic Books, 2016.

Sections on the early Industrial Revolution and the run-up thereto (especially ch. 4) offer an elegantly presented brief background on the interface between humans and the new machines of what would become The Age of the Machines/The Age of Steam — and the coal and iron that went into those machines. An important interface was where the tunnel ended and the coal started in the mines.

RDE, finishing, 12Ap21