Miners And the State in the Ottoman Empire ― The Zonguldak Coalfield, 1822-1920

Quataert (history, Binghamton U., SUNY) uses the story of the miners of Zonguldak as a lens through which to examine subjects that have been of major concern to historians: the development of the state, the emergence of capitalism and the role of the working class in these processes. The encounters of mine workers with state mining officials and private operators do not follow the expected patterns of labor-state-capital relations predicted by the major paradigms of modernization or dependency. Quataert demonstrates that the fate of these miners has much to interest Ottoman and Middle East specialists, as well as scholars of the developing world. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Donald Quataert is Professor of History at Binghamton University, State University of New York. He specializes in Middle Eastern history and also teaches comparative labor history and global history. His many publications include Ottoman Manufacturing in the Age of the Industrial Revolution (Cambridge 1993); (with Halil Inalcik) An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914 (Cambridge, 1994); The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2005).