| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

A Social Contract for the Coal Fields: The Rise and Fall of the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund. By Richard P. Mulcahy. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2000. xiv, 274 pp. $34.00, ISBN 1-57233-100-3.)

This timely book deserves serious attention. Richard P. Mulcahy shows that the rise and fall of the United Mine Workers Welfare and Retirement Fund anticipated many of today's headline-generating pension and health insurance issues. The book also is a response to the dismantling of John L. Lewis's reputation. Acknowledging Lewis's many failings, Mulcahy nevertheless credits the union leader for implementing a humanitarian, corporate social vision reflecting what he calls the 'New Deal Order.' Lewis's creation, however, could not ultimately withstand industry opposition, hostility from organized medicine, and the decline of the coal industry. And it could not survive the contradiction between Lewis's humane vision and his determination to stabilize the coal industry through mechanization. . . .

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