Dr. Jennifer L. Macalady

The human history of coal is a “little big history” that leaves me full of empathy for everyone from individuals to human societies on a global scale. It was the inspiration for my freshman seminar class “The deep history of everyday objects.” It’s a book that I remember when I am frustrated with the issues that divide rural and urban Pennsylvanians, and it also links me to my ancestors, who left northern Italy for Belgian coal mines around the time of Napoleon.