Miners and the State in the Ottoman Empire

The Zonguldak Coalfield, 1822-1920

Donald Quataert

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN:
  9781845451349
  9781845451332
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781782387220
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Economic History
• Index: History

The story of the miners of Zonguldak presents a particularly graphic local lens through which to examine questions that have been of major concern to historians—most prominently, the development of the state, the emergence of capitalism, and the role of the working classes in these large processes. This book examines such major issues through the actual experiences of coal miners in the Ottoman Empire. The encounters of mine workers with state mining officials and private mine operators do not follow the expected patterns of labor-state-capital relations as predicted by the major explanatory paradigms of modernization or dependency. Indeed, as the author clearly shows, few of the outcomes are as predicted. The fate of these miners has much to offer both Ottoman and Middle East specialists as well as scholars of the developing world and, more generally, those interested in the connections between economic development and social and political change.

Table of contents

• Series Page
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Chapter 1: Introduction and Historiographical Essay
• Chapter 2: The Ottoman Coal Coast
• Chapter 3: Coal Miners at Work: Jobs, Recruitment, and Wages
• Chapter 4: “Like Slaves in Colonial Countries”: Working Conditions in the Coalfield
• Chapter 5: Ties That Bind: Village-Mine Relations
• Chapter 6: Military Duty and Mine Work: The Blurred Vocations of Ottoman Soldier-Workers
• Chapter 7: Methane, Rockfalls, and Other Disasters: Accidents at the Mines
• Chapter 8: Victims and Agents: Confronting Death and Safety in the Mines
• Chapter 9: Wartime in the Coalfield
• Chapter 10: Conclusion
• Appendix on the Reporting of Accidents
• An Ottoman Miner’s Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index