Wonthaggi - a regional mining community that won a national reputation in Australia - came to be admired by many and disliked by others. For 60 years, the town's highly unionized miners successfully worked the thin broken seams of a state coal mine that would have been regarded as insufficiently profitable by most Australian mine owners. At times, through the national Miners Federation, they exerted a powerful influence within the Australian coal industry and beyond. For the residents of Wonthaggi, their mine and their union helped them understand and define who they were, playing a role in their everyday lives, understandings, and imaginations that thoroughly transcended the workplace. In an age of private accumulation and social fragmentation, Up from the Underworld brings to light this important history.