Coal People: Life in Southern Colorado's Company Towns, 1890-1930

“Coal People” was a fascinating and quick read. I appreciated Rick’s writing style which is factual, to the point, and also very readable. I loved how he personalized and created stories out of his research.In particular I appreciated that he had a entire chapters dedicated to a miner’s life, a woman’s life, and a child’s life. It was interesting to be able to contrast and compare the three experiences and to try to imagine myself in each role.

Really informative about how miners and their families lived in early 19th century Colorado. Went a long way in explaining how my grandfather was raised and lived when he was a boy in Las Animas County, Co.

My son is interested in coal mining. His grand father was a coal miner for 45 years in Colorado area.

a forgotten part of Colorado history

This is my rebutal to the ill advised likely a bit youthful fantsy or drug induced "review"posted. This is a book about people many Americans who worked the coalfields (mines) of Colorado the late 19th and early 20th century.The reviewer is likely "on drugs" or worse. It's(the book)about people;mostly immigrants as my famiy who worked in the mines and died in the hundreds but many of their children went on to become America......The negative review should have never been printed as it is not a review but some likely racist and sad soul playing around with a serious facet of how America was formed into what we are today.It is an honorable and important book that documents life that was harsh but full of promise for America: coal was fuel;fuel equated America's future: to supply the world with the tools to stop wars of aggression.......it is simple:how the West was won.........Joe "Doc"son of a coalminer;grandson and more.....

My octogenarian aunt, who grew up in these towns, was delighted to find the lives of her parents and childhood companions described so thoughtfully. This is an important contribution to the history of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain west, and it deserves serious attention.

I have had time to more fully explore the nuanced "Coal People", but only because I spent five years in Pelican Bay for creating what the state of CA considers a "Ponzi scheme". Whatever.That time allowed me to really pull apart Coal People. Reading it also gave me the chance to cross pollinate reference materials, so my reading list grew to include such titles as "the amethyst hominid's", "ignatious rocks: how eigth grade earth science teacher's are ruining the study of geology", "sentimental sediment: an alliterative primer for budding geologists" and finally, "core values: a journey into the center of the earth" by Pat Robertson.What these books teach us, quite frankly, is not much. Coal People, in retrospect, did a much better job, from a layman's perspective, of allowing us, from a distance, to learn how to avoid, at all costs, the overruse of comma's.Going forward, one hopes author Clyne will revisit his subject and delve deeper into precisely why one would opt to be a 'coal person'. Until he does, however, the choices listed above could prove interesting.

The part about the 10 year old wrapping himself up in chicken wire and falling down off the picnic table was too much for me to bear!. Thank God he landed on his head. Author Clyne is a genius.