Most textbooks explain the phenomenal growth of the American economy during the industrial revolution by some combination of immigration, urbanization, the rise of mass production, the inventiveness of great scientists, the development of extensive infrastructure, the rise of corporations, government subsidies, the "laissez-faire" legal environment, and the bounty of America's natural resources.

Historians also treat economic growth during the industrial revolution as the product of many factors, but some seek out explanations and track changes beyond the few tidy categories laid out in textbooks. How, for instance, did the U.S. transition to coal power, and how was that transition both driving and driven by urbanization, mechanization, and a growing infrastructure? What effect did it have on the environment and living conditions?

Sources reveal a society suffering from growing pains, with environmental and human rights concerns not yet keeping pace with the huge demand for raw coal and power to support rapidly expanding systems of infrastructure and industry. A nationwide dependency on mining sprang up unplanned, at the root of many of the changes in the U.S.'s culture and economy.