A Brief History of Mining

From the flint mines of Neolithic Europe—where prehistoric miners followed seams of stone with deer-antler picks—to the colossal open pits of the Australian outback and the deep-sea robots scavenging the ocean floor, A Brief History of Mining traces the dangerous, dirty, and indispensable industry that has fed humanity's appetite for metal, coal, and treasure for over 40,000 years. This gripping narrative follows mining through the ages: the copper and tin that birthed the Bronze Age, the gold that drove empires (and genocide) in the Americas, the coal that powered the Industrial Revolution, the uranium that ended World War II, and the lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements that fuel your smartphone and electric vehicle. Along the way, it introduces the prospectors, the miners, the company men, and the labor organizers—from the slave-driven Roman silver mines of Spain to the Forty-Niners of the California Gold Rush, from the pickaxe-wielding hardrock miners of the Comstock Lode to the modern "miners" who extract cryptocurrency instead of ore.

But is mining the foundation of civilization or a curse upon the land and its people? This book does not flinch from the industry's brutal legacy: the cave-ins, black lung, and mining disasters that have killed millions, the rivers poisoned by acid drainage, the mountains blown apart by mountaintop removal, the child labor still digging cobalt in the Congo, and the ghost towns left behind when the vein runs dry. From the miner's canary to the rise of corporate consolidation, from the labor wars of West Virginia to the environmental justice battles over sacred lands, A Brief History of Mining is an essential, eye-opening guide to the hidden cost of every metal object you touch—and the unavoidable truth that the digital age runs on holes dug in the earth.