The Eregli-Zonguldak coal basin has been Turkey’s source of hard coal since the second half of the nineteenth century and became one of the biggest industrial centers of Turkey in the early Republican era. The male population of the basin, who formed tha main source of underground labor power in the pits, allocated their working time between mining and agriculture sometimes by force, sometimes willingly. Although these workers witnessed many political, economic, and social changes in the history of Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey, their part-time work patterns remained unchanged…