Chapter 32 Exercises: The Coal Economy's Collapse
Exercise 1: Mapping the Market Forces
Chapter 32 identifies three converging market forces that drove coal's decline: cheap natural gas from fracking, declining renewable energy costs, and automation.
a) For each of the three forces, create a brief timeline showing key dates and milestones (e.g., when fracking became commercially viable, when solar costs crossed below coal costs, when coal employment peaked and began its steepest decline).
b) Which of the three forces began earliest? Which had the most sudden impact? Which was the most gradual?
c) The chapter argues that these were primarily market forces, not political forces. In your own words, explain the distinction. Why does this distinction matter for understanding the "War on Coal" narrative?
d) Some analysts argue that government policies — subsidies for renewable energy, environmental regulations, research funding for fracking technology — played an important supporting role in all three forces, making them partly political after all. How would you evaluate this argument? Where do you draw the line between "market-driven" and "policy-driven" change?
Exercise 2: Analyzing the "War on Coal" Narrative
The "War on Coal" framing claimed that coal's decline was primarily caused by government regulation, particularly by the Obama administration's EPA.
a) List the specific regulations that the chapter identifies as imposing costs on the coal industry. What did each regulation require?
b) The Columbia University study cited in the chapter found that cheap natural gas — not regulation — was the primary driver of coal plant retirements. Why might the "War on Coal" narrative have been more politically effective than the accurate market explanation?
c) The chapter states that the "War on Coal" narrative "worked because it translated structural economic change — which is complex, impersonal, and offers no clear solution — into a political conflict — which is simple, personal, and offers the illusion of a solution." Identify another example from history (Appalachian or otherwise) where complex structural change was translated into a simpler political narrative. What were the consequences?
d) Is it possible to acknowledge both that the "War on Coal" narrative was misleading AND that the economic pain it described was real? How should historians handle narratives that are factually incomplete but emotionally authentic?
Exercise 3: The McDowell County Population Graph
Using the population data provided in Chapter 32 and Case Study 1, create a line graph showing McDowell County's population from 1950 to 2020.
a) Identify the decade(s) with the steepest decline. What was happening in the coal industry during those decades?
b) Compare McDowell County's population trajectory to the national population trajectory over the same period. What does the comparison reveal?
c) Research the current population of your hometown or a county you are familiar with. If your community lost population at the same rate as McDowell County, what would its population be today? What would that feel like?
d) Population decline is often described as a gradual process, but the chapter suggests it involves cascading effects (school closures, hospital closures, business closures) that accelerate the decline. Identify at least three such cascading effects and explain how each one makes the next round of population loss more likely.
Exercise 4: Retraining — Promise vs. Reality
a) The chapter identifies four structural barriers to workforce retraining: geographic mismatch, age and health barriers, wage disparity, and cultural identity. Rank these barriers from most to least significant, and explain your reasoning. (There is no single correct answer — the exercise is about articulating and defending your analysis.)
b) Read the description of the Coalfield Development Corporation's model. What makes this model different from a traditional job-training program? Why might the holistic approach be more effective?
c) The phrase "learn to code" became a symbol of condescension in coalfield communities. Rewrite the message behind "learn to code" in language that acknowledges the barriers, respects the identity of displaced workers, and still communicates the need for economic transition. (This is harder than it sounds — the exercise is about discovering why it is hard.)
d) Research one specific workforce retraining program that has operated in the Appalachian coalfields. What was the program? Who funded it? How many people participated? What were the outcomes? What can you learn from this specific case about the broader challenges of economic transition?
Exercise 5: The "Just Transition" Concept
a) In your own words, define "just transition" as described in Chapter 32. What does the concept demand? Who bears the obligation?
b) The chapter notes that the just transition concept originated in the labor movement with Tony Mazzocchi. Research Mazzocchi's original proposal. How did he envision a just transition? What specific mechanisms did he propose?
c) Evaluate whether the federal government's actual response to coal's decline — including the POWER Initiative, ARC funding, and the Inflation Reduction Act provisions — meets the standard of a "just transition." What has been done? What has been inadequate? What would be needed to close the gap?
d) Critics of the "just transition" concept argue that markets should be allowed to work without government intervention, and that displaced workers should be responsible for their own adaptation. Advocates argue that communities that sacrificed their health and environment to produce energy for the nation are owed support during the transition away from that energy source. Write a one-page argument for each position, then identify the strongest points on each side.
Exercise 6: Primary Source Analysis
Read the three primary source excerpts in Chapter 32 (the mine closure account, the Patriot Coal bankruptcy account, and the community organizer's statement about tourism).
a) For each excerpt, identify the speaker's perspective: What is their relationship to the coal economy? What have they lost? What are they angry about?
b) The community organizer's statement about tourism draws a parallel between the coal economy and the tourism economy: "the money goes right back out of the county just like the coal money went right back out of the county." Evaluate this comparison. In what ways is tourism similar to coal extraction? In what ways is it different?
c) The Patriot Coal bankruptcy excerpt describes a company stripping retired miners of their promised health benefits. Research the Patriot Coal case. How did the company structure its bankruptcy? How were retirees affected? What legal protections, if any, existed for their benefits?
d) Write your own "primary source" — a one-paragraph first-person account from one of the following perspectives: (1) a young person deciding whether to leave McDowell County, (2) a retraining program administrator, (3) a retired miner who has lost their health benefits, or (4) a tourism developer in a former coal community. Your account should be historically informed, empathetic, and specific.
Exercise 7: Comparative Analysis
Choose one of the following communities and research its experience with single-industry decline:
- Detroit, Michigan (automotive industry decline)
- Gary, Indiana (steel industry decline)
- Flint, Michigan (automotive industry decline)
- Youngstown, Ohio (steel industry decline)
- A coalfield community of your choice outside the examples used in Chapter 32
a) What was the dominant industry? When did it decline? What caused the decline?
b) What was the community's response? What retraining, diversification, or transition programs were attempted? What were the results?
c) How does your chosen community's experience compare to McDowell County's? What factors made the experiences similar or different?
d) Based on your research, identify two or three factors that seem to help communities survive single-industry decline. Are these factors present in the Appalachian coalfields? If not, what would it take to create them?
Exercise 8: The Identity Question
The chapter argues that the coal collapse was, at its deepest level, an "identity crisis" — that when an industry dies, it destroys not just an economy but a sense of self.
a) In your own words, explain the connection between occupation and identity that the chapter describes. Why might the loss of an occupation feel like the loss of a self?
b) The concept of "deaths of despair" (Case and Deaton) links rising mortality to the collapse of social structures that give life meaning. How does the coal collapse fit this framework? What specific social structures were destroyed?
c) Is the identity crisis described in this chapter unique to coal communities, or does it apply to any community experiencing rapid economic dislocation? Identify another case where economic change produced an identity crisis, and compare it to the Appalachian experience.
d) The chapter ends by noting that some people "stayed and imagined something new." What does it take to rebuild identity after the foundation of the old identity has been destroyed? What role can communities, institutions, and individuals play in this rebuilding?