Coalmining was a notoriously dangerous industry and many of its workers experienced injury and disease. However, the experiences of the many disabled people within Britain's most dangerous industry have gone largely unrecognised by historians. This book looks at the British coal industry through the lens of disability, using an interdisciplinary approach to examine the lives of disabled miners and their families. The book covers an era of British coalmining in which it peaked as one of Britain's most productive and lucrative industries, through strikes and wartime, and into an era of decline. During this time, the legislative provision for disabled people changed hugely, most notably with the first programme of state compensation for workplace injury. Yet disabled people remained a constant presence in the industry; many miners continued their jobs or took up 'light work', and mining families regularly adapted their social relations for their disabled members. The burgeoning coalfields literature used images of disability consistently, their disabled characters representing the human toll of the industry. A diverse range of sources are used to examine the economic, social, political and cultural impact of disability in the coal industry, looking beyond formal coal company and union records to include autobiographies, novels and existing oral testimony.

It argues that, far from being excluded entirely from British industry, disability and disabled people were central to its development. The book will appeal to students and academics interested in disability history, disability studies, social and cultural history and representations of disability in literature.