This book is the outcome of research that almost spanned a decade. Although I am solely responsible for its contents, others assisted me. First, I owe a great deal of thanks to the men and women who kindly gave up their time to discuss their life stories and family histories. In most cases, they did so with someone who was previously entirely unknown to them. I am also indebted to those who put me in touch with others. Thanks especially to Brendan Moohan and Willie Doolan who have become good friends since I interviewed them. I also owe thanks to patient archivists who made documents available to me at the National Records of Scotland, The National Archives and the National Mining Museum Scotland. Staff at Historic Environment Scotland helped me to obtain licences for the images reproduced in this volume. Carole McCallum of Glasgow Caledonian University archives assisted by providing a licence for the Bob Starrett cartoon used in chapter 6. John O’Hara very generously donated the picture of the Auchengeich Mining Disaster Memorial which is included on the cover. Jackie Kay kindly sent me her poem and Jim Monaghan allowed me to reproduce part of his. I was given financial support from a Royal Society of Edinburgh small grant, which enabled me to visit The National Archives. An Institute of Historical Research Scouloudi publication award supported the cost of image licensing.
I began the work behind this book as a master’s student and then as a PhD candidate within the Economic and Social History subject area at the University of Glasgow. Jim Phillips and Duncan Ross were an excellent and good-humoured PhD supervision team. They supported my development as an independent-minded researcher while challenging me to explain the importance and relevance of my approach and findings. Other colleagues have provided guidance on my research as it developed: thanks to Jim Tomlinson, Ray Stokes and Jeff Fear for commenting on papers that have informed this work. Many thanks to Keith Gildart, Bill Knox and Catriona MacDonald, who examined full versions of the book as it progressed from thesis to monograph. Their insights have improved the completed manuscript.
The findings presented in this book were honed through several conferences and seminar papers and benefited from questions from audience members. Thanks especially to those who attended panels at the Business History Conference in 2015, the Economic History Society in 2016 and the Political Studies Association in 2017. Additionally, thank you to the Scottish Oral History Centre for offering me the privilege of delivering seminars on my research project in 2016 and 2019, and to the University of the West of Scotland Society, Politics, Governance and Justice Hub, the Yunus Centre and the University of Edinburgh’s Scottish History seminar series for doing the same in 2017, 2019 and 2020. The Institute of Historical Research and the Royal Historical Society have also been of great assistance to a first-time author. Thank you to Simon Newman, Jane Winters, David Andress and Philip Carter for their guidance.
Between my time at Glasgow, UWS and meeting academics from other institutions, I have felt part of a supportive research community. Thank you to Andy Clark, Rory Scothorne, Felicity Cawley, Andrew Perchard, Dominic Reed, Ewan Kerr, Tom Montgomery, James Bowness, Diarmaid Kelliher, Henry Bell, Claire Harkins, Stephen Mullen, Duncan Hotchkiss, Christopher Miller, Scott Hames, Valerie Wright and Julie Clark for your friendship and collegiality. Thanks also to Nathan Blondel for helping me devise the title of this book.
Thanks to my mother and father, Maria and Neil Gibbs, for decades of support which made this possible.
Last but certainly not least. Thank you to Laura Dover, whose uncles Iain and Jimmy worked at Cardowan colliery, and whose love and encouragement made writing this book much happier.
Figure 0.1. RCAHMS, Map of the Scottish coalfields (2005). ©Historic Environment Scotland.