The Business of Consulting or When The Mines Closed

The Business of Consulting: The Basics and Beyond

Author: Elaine Biech

Designed as the go-to reference for managing a consulting business, The Business of Consulting is candid, practical, and eminently useful. Fine-tuned to address the changes in today’s business environment, this vital resource outlines the basics for managing a consulting practice and shows how to

· Develop a business plan

· Market your business

· Charge for your services

· Build a client relationship

· Grow the business

· Ensure your continued professional growth

· Make money in the profession

Go to: Kids in the Syndrome Mix of ADHD LD Aspergers Tourettes Bipolar and More or The Pregnancy Book

When The Mines Closed: Stories of Struggles in Hard Times

Author: Thomas Dublin

The anthracite region of northeastern Pennsylvania, five hundred square miles of rugged hills stretching between Tower City and Carbondale, harbored coal deposits that once heated virtually all the homes and businesses in Eastern cities. At its peak during World War I, the coal industry here employed 170,000 miners, and supported almost 1,000,000 people. Today, with coal workers numbering 1,500, only 5,000 people depend on the industry for their livelihood. Between these two points in time lies a story of industrial decline, of working people facing incremental and cataclysmic changes in their world. When the Mines Closed tells this story in the words of men and women who experienced these dramatic changes and in more than eighty photographs of these individuals, their families, and the larger community.

Award-winning historian Thomas Dublin interviewed a cross-section of residents and migrants from the region, who gave their own accounts of their work and family lives before and after the mines closed. Most of the narrators, six men and seven women, came of age during the Great Depression and entered area mines or, in the case of the women, garment factories, in their teens. They describe the difficult choices they faced, and the long-standing ethnic, working-class values and traditions they drew upon, when after World War II the mines began to shut down. Some left the region, others commuted to work at a distance, still others struggled to find employment locally.

The photographs taken by George Harvan, a lifelong resident of the area and the son of a Slovak-born coal miner, document residents' lives over the course of fifty years. Dublin's introductory essay offers a briefhistory of anthracite mining and the region and establishes a broader interpretive framework for the narratives and photographs.

Book Magazine

"... Dublin's oral history presents a dreary portrait of those living in Pennsylvania's coal mining Panther Valley. Using first-person accounts of several area residents (six men, seven women), the author provides a steady stream of their "stories of struggles in hard times." Their narratives capture America's immigrant middle class, from bowling and bootleg whiskey to religion, at their best and in pure drudgery. Though local newspaper photographer and coal-miner's son George Harvan's photographs suggest that life went on after the mines closed, the results, lacking a wider scope, are ordinary."
­Scott Holleran

Publishers Weekly

History professor Dublin's look at the anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania addresses important questions, not just for the beleaguered mining industry, but for American labor in general. By focusing on a largely unschooled, working-class population of former coal miners and their wives, he chronicles how people adapt to economic upheaval. While the book is framed by Dublin's excellent introduction, the bulk of the text is made up of oral histories. Twelve women and men--all of whom are now in their 70s and 80s--address the centrality of work, and analyze how ethnic, religious and gender-based associations mediated work conflicts and financial want. Their recollections span the 20th century, and move from mining's peak during WWI--when 175,000 men were employed and one million were supported by the industry--to 1992, when the mines employed 1400 and supported approximately 5000. As oil, natural gas and electricity replaced coal heat, most of the workers had to find alternate employment. Many of the men went to plants like Bethlehem Steel; women for the most part headed for textile factories. Their testimony about this translation is often extremely moving; on the other hand, more probing about alluded-to ethnic and racial conflicts, attitudes toward unions and worker associations, and changes in family structure would have made the book more resonant. Eighty photos. (Sept.)

Library Journal

Dublin (history, SUNY at Binghamton) is the author of a number of labor history titles, including Women at Work (1979). He focuses here on the coal mine closings in northeastern Pennsylvania, using oral history to "reconstruct how relatively ordinary residents in the region experienced economic decline." From 90 interviews, he selected 12 for this book. Dublin provides background on mining in the region, and he has done an excellent job of editing the interviews to bring these voices alive. While the miners and their wives have led hard lives, one is left with an impression of their great pride in work done well. The photographs by Harvan, a lifelong resident of the area, nicely complement the narratives. Highly recommended for labor history collections.--Linda L. McEwan, Elgin Community Coll., IL