A really noteworthy book. The author, a French professor of English literature and culture, takes the coal problem as a reflection of the social crisis in post-war England. After studying the coal industry and setting forth its place in the economic life of the country, he examines the causes of the post-war crisis, stressing the larger national and international factors as well as the narrower dispute between the owners and the workers. In this way the treatment of the specific problem becomes the starting point for an analysis of the general situation and the new social psychology. The author discusses the general strike with great detail; he was in England at that time. As the detached account of a scholarly outsider, the chapters dealing with this momentous episode are among the best that have been written on the subject. The book is heavily documented throughout and will prove valuable as well as interesting to all students of modern England.
