Writing in 2005-6, Quataert proved that old style labor history can still be utilised to create innovative research. He analysed the minutia of wages, hours and conditions of the different workers, attempting to construct an account of their everyday lives. He argues that violence played a greater role on coercing villagers to work than traditional Marxist analysis would suggest. The coerced workers, whose ranks included conscript soldiers, formed a substrate in the mines, particularly below the ground. Overall, this book is proof that material analysis is still useful in history, and challenges us to reconsider the role of unfree labor at a much later date than usual.