The Mining West: A Bibliography & Guide to the History & Literature of Mining in the American & Canadian West (review)

This bibliography is an impressively bulky two-volume set, although the equally impressive price likely means that only libraries will purchase copies. But it is a formidable collection and it is hoped that the major research libraries will acquire the book. Its two volumes list more than twenty-eight thousand entries, many of these accompanied by an explanatory or descriptive phrase. Korn's recent review in the Times Literary Supplement, of a two-volume bibliography of coffee, concluded that its subject belonged in 'the tradition of the heroic age of bibliography' and Lingenfelter's compilation deserves similar praise.

The bibliography is subdivided into seven sections. The first of these is an overview ('The American & Canadian West'), which is subdivided into two categories, one devoted to the broad themes of mining history and the second to more technical aspects of mining. The subsequent six sections are regional bibliographies, beginning with 'The Southwest' (defined here as Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas) and ending with 'The Far North' (Alaska, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut). These six regional sections - with the exception of the one on California - are further subdivided into their constituent political units (states, provinces, and territories). Lingenfelter provides an introduction to each of these subdivisions, drawing the reader's attention to important works as well as offering an outline of the area's mining history. The bibliographies that follow list the entries under four headings: 'Mining History,' 'Mining Description, Reminiscences, Lore, &c.,' 'Mining Fiction, Poetry & Songs,' and 'Bibliographies, Indices, &c.' These are useful categories that go a long way to compensate for the book's one shortcoming, the lack of an index. The bibliography's coverage of mining in western and northern Canada is comprehensive: there are separate chapters, with introductions by Lingenfelter on British Columbia, each of the three prairie provinces, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Lingenfelter has very broad scholarly interests: he holds an academic appointment as a physicist but is also well known as a mining historian. He has written several important monographs, and this compilation is as carefully prepared as his earlier work. While his commentaries in the bibliography reflect a familiarity with a very wide range of material - from early Native mining to the latest diamond activity in the Northwest Territories, from mining-equipment catalogues to recent dissertations on the environmental history of mining - perhaps the most impressive fact is that he owns 'almost half of the [28,479!] works cited here' (x). Lingenfelter is in the process of donating these to the University of California at San Diego, so interested scholars will be able to make ready use of his collection.

Just how many people are interested in mining history remains an open question. Harold Innis noted in 1941 that the mining industry had 'a place of crucial importance' in countries such as Canada. Certainly the bourgeoisie appreciated its significance, a fact literally on display at the 1937 Toronto Stock Exchange Building. Yet it remains the case that few monographs deal seriously with mining's history. If economic history is a good deal less fashionable than it once was, perhaps those interested in environmental history will continue to investigate the long and curious trajectory of mining in Canada. For those wishing to explore the principal sources that shed light on this history, this book is a valuable resource.