Epilogue

This epilogue concludes the narrative by examining the effects of World War II on the Tri-State mining district. The National War Labor Board ultimately facilitated the unionization of most district miners in the CIO. As federal support waned at war’s end, however, the district rapidly collapsed. Although now unionized, Tri-State miners opted for the conservative, anti-Communist unionism of the American Federation of Labor. But no union could stop the closure of the mines by the late 1950s. Rather than go into mining, young working-class men. such as the district’s favorite son, Mickey Mantle, now chose other occupations. The epilogue also surveys the books core arguments and reiterates its historiographical significance.