From the Miners' Doublehouse: Archaeology and Landscape in a Pennsylvania Coal Company Town

From the Miners' Doublehouse: Archaeology and Landscape in a Pennsylvania Coal Company Town. KAREN BESCHERER METHENY. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 2007. 305 pp., 62 illus., 23 tables, 2 appendices, biblio., notes, index. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-57233-495-3.Reviewed by Tanya FabersonCamps and mining towns are generally only recent topics of interest in historical and industrial archaeology. Mining towns established during the nineteenthand early-twentieth-century gold and silver rushes in the western United States received increased interest by historical archaeologists in the early 200Os, but mining sites east of the Mississippi River - in particular, the expansive coal fields of Pennsylvania and of central and southern Appalachia - have never captured the same degree of interest until lately. Coal mining sites, including coal camps/towns, are regularly encountered during surveys conducted by cultural resource management firms in these regions. Unfortunately, however, the resulting data is not always readily accessible, getting somewhat "lost" in the gray literature.From the Miners' Doublehouse provides a rich resource of information on the establishment of coal company towns that not only adds to the growing literature of industrial landscapes but also establishes a framework for investigating these sites and interpreting miners' lifeways within a broader cultural context. Karen Bescherer Metheny utilizes a variety of sources, including oral histories, archival information, and archaeological data, to reveal the effects of industrial capitalism on a broader scale and ways in which mine workers and their families were not merely unfortunate victims of exploitative mining companies. She illustrates with these avenues of inquiry how, in contrast, workers maintained a sense of identity and agency, negotiating their places within the corporate landscape as well as within the community.Metheny begins her study with previous research on the topic of the industrial landscape, paying particular attention to common conceptualizations of workingclass behavior and worker agency. While there has been increased attention paid to class, and specifically working-class behavior within the discipline of historical archaeology, Metheny argues that many of these studies present workers as victims of corporate domination and exploitation rather than agents actively in control of their own lives, working to change their situations and improve their conditions whenever necessary.Chapters 1 and 2 present an introduction to the historical and social context of the corporate landscape of the company town. In order to access and extract specific resources, or manufacture certain goods (such as in the case of mills), industries like coal companies sought to establish company towns in locations near the resources. Not surprisingly, these locations often were remote, and in order to recruit miners, workers were given promises of decent wages and a higher quality of life than which they currently had. This especially was the case with foreign immigrants. Corporate paternalism was at the heart of the structure and operation of these isolated company towns, and due to their isolation and the manner in which the communities were organized, workers often were dependent upon the company for not only wages but also food, shelter, and clothing, making them dependent on the company for all their basic needs. As Metheny explains, corporate autocratic rule was established through these measures of control, and workers were left to resist and/or negotiate their place within the company infrastructure as well as within the social milieu of the company town.The third chapter describes the specific historic setting of Metheny's study area in western Pennsylvania, Helvetia. She utilizes both primary archival and secondary resources to reconstruct the history of the coal company and the development of the company town. …