1920s, especially New York

Following. A future project is in this same vein (and for me, the Italian angle).

I've recently read Passing, Jazz, and a light mystery (Murder in little Italy) to get a feel for the era/NYC. I've also got Manhattan Transfer and Ragtime on my nightstand, as well as an indie-published memoir from a descendant of an Italian immigrant and a book of photos in the Images of America series (I recommend checking out that series on Amazon.). The books around The Godfather are on my to-be-considered list.

Curious what other people will say on this topic.

For fiction set there, F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby is of course classic. I think his The Beautiful and the Damned take place there too. For NYC, you got tons of source material available. Don't forget to look at newspapers from the time, too.

Since you're interested in coal mining, are you interested in upstate NY? For non-fic all I can think to recommend is Energy by Richard Rhodes, although by the 1920s he focuses more on oil and less on coal, and less so on the lives of coal miners.

If your focus is NYC, another resource is the Bowery Boys Podcast.

Over 300 episodes with extensive research. If you are lucky, a few of them might work for your project.

For my 1920s paranormal, I chose to have it take place in my hometown and found looking through the microfilm of the newspapers of the time to be invaluable. I also read articles that a local historian wrote about the town, especially anything that would pertain to my story, mostly what shops and buildings were around at the time and where. Sanborn maps helped with that too. I can't help with New York, since my research was extensively on the specific year I chose (1923) and my small town. And being paranormal (vampires and a ghost) I felt I could fudge a few things if I couldn't find what I was looking for. Thankfully, I found a lot of historical material to help me with most anything I needed to know, including tiny details no one else knows are true but me.

Some historical papers, like the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, you can poke around in from the comfort of your laptop... on Newspaper.com. Clippings and so on. Like this one from 1922 about why coal will never be cheap. (We sure are paying for it in more ways than one, heh.)

You can sort by date range and key word. Great resource.