Kyle's review
Coal: A Human History by Barbara Freese
I'm not sure whether or not I'm disappointed in this book. I've bee looking for a history of the coal industry for a while, and thought this might be the ticket. It does a great job looking at pre-industrial revolution uses of coal (the books best section), but falls down somewhat as it moves to 19th and 20th century America. There's some interesting discussion of the distinction between bituminous and anthracite coal and how their different placement shaped the coal industry, but I was left feeling like I had only read anecdotes. Ditto the final third of the book, which focuses on China's coal industry: just a bit shallow.
There's a lot of interesting stuff in this book, and if the author would have expanded this into a deeper, more comprehensive study of perhaps twice the length, I think it would be great.
One thing this book does do very well, however, which I appreciate: The author takes great care to prevent her environmental biases from clouding her analysis. For a boo...more
There's a lot of interesting stuff in this book, and if the author would have expanded this into a deeper, more comprehensive study of perhaps twice the length, I think it would be great.
One thing this book does do very well, however, which I appreciate: The author takes great care to prevent her environmental biases from clouding her analysis. For a boo...more
