Coal country: the meaning and memory of deindustrialization in postwar Scotland.

The physical and social changes wrought by nationalisation and then modernisation, as described in Gibbs' book, are given a visual reality, albeit with a propaganda slant. Their views are used to illustrate every part of the book and show very clearly how individual and group perceptions of what might or might not have been correct at the time were so essential in their own decision in response to pit closures and other fundamental changes to the lives of miners and whole mining communities. Coal Country opens with the author witnessing the well-attended 2018 event commemorating a mining disaster which took place before most of those present were even born and with which very few present had a personal connection. [Extracted from the article]