The mining districts of the Cahaba coal field in central Alabama affected the lives of those in the area from discovery in the 1840s through the bust of the 1950s. James Sanders Day's book provides a detailed account of how the Cahaba coal field was discovered, surveyed, and developed and how these efforts shaped not only the local communities of central Alabama, but also how coal mining in the Cahaba coal field fit into the larger context of coal mining throughout the U.S. in the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. Day's book sets a new beginning to coal operations in central Alabama from the mid-1850s to the late 1840s, establishing viable coal-mining operations in antebellum Alabama. The story of the Cahaba coal field told by Day aligns with the belief that Alabama experienced an “economic miracle” in the last antebellum decade.

The first chapters of the book focus on events in the nineteenth century and encompass the discovery, exploration, mapping, and early development of the coal lands in central Alabama. Important characters in the development of the Cahaba coal field such as William Phineas Browne, Joseph Squire, and Henry DeBardeleben are profiled. The rich historical narrative regarding these central figures in early central Alabama coal mining highlights the hardships and obstacles overcome by a few very determined men in the early days of developing coal in the region. Day outlines (chapter 2) how the civil war impacted coal operations in the region through labor shortages, fluctuating market demand, and difficulty of payment due to war scarcity, but also how the area benefited from a new railroad and became the primary source of coal for the Confederate government. Day also explains (chapter 3) how the main players in the industry developed coal mining, coking, iron and steel production, and railroads in Alabama and how “mining efforts in the last half of the nineteenth century laid the groundwork for the golden age of coal in the first half of the twentieth century.”

The remaining chapters of the book explore more general topics of coal mining in the United States from the late nineteenth century up to the mid-1970s. Day uses the experiences of and the conditions seen throughout the Cahaba coal field and Alabama coal mining to examine topics relevant to the coal mining industry across the United States during this time period. These include: convict labor, miner demographics and migration, unionization, safety, wages, coal town development, coal town decline, and welfare capitalism.

Day references Crandall Shifflett's definitive work Coal Towns: Life, Work, and Culture in Company Towns of Southern Appalachia, 1880–1960 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991) and states that “Shifflett's periodization and overall description of Appalachian coal towns proves instructive when surveying Cahaba.” The Cahaba region was unique among coal mining areas in that “instead of experiencing centralized control and standardized wages from one or two large corporations, Cahaba miners dealt with numerous independent operators.” This meant the miners experienced variation in the number of days worked and pay rates per ton across the Cahaba region, which Day catalogues extensively. Day's examination of convict labor and leasing in the post-Civil War South illuminates how convict labor and leasing both were representative of the challenges regarding racism, violence, and capital shortages during the time, captured by W. E. B. DuBois' quote that convict leasing “had the worst aspects of slavery without any of its redeeming features,” but that it was also “a central component in the region's modernization” because it promoted economic growth in industry, not agriculture. Day ends the book by outlining how all mining operations in the region had ceased by the summer of 1976 and that towns like West Blocton were dealing with high unemployment, boarded stores, and homes without running water.

Diamonds in the Rough tells informative and interesting stories regarding the beginnings of coal mining in Alabama and the hardships and obstacles overcome by the early coal mining pioneers. If this were the first book someone read about coal mining in the United States, they would also come away with a good understanding of many facets of coal mining not only in Alabama, but across many regions of the United States. Day's book is the result of extensive research and also provides very detailed mine level wage and productivity data within the Cahaba region, which could be very useful for other researchers. These data catalogued by Day could have been put in the context of other coal mining areas across Appalachia by referencing other academic work on the topic, such as Price Fishback's Soft Coal, Hard Choices: The Economic Welfare of Bituminous Coal Miners, 1890–1930 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).