Description
Book SynopsisIn the early 21st century, radically changing work locations and patterns have jolted society to reflect more on the ways that employment affects the body and the mind. This book provides historical context and insights to aid our understanding of this contemporary crisis, critically examining the history of a neglected area.In this oral-history based study, Arthur McIvor explores the history of health and safety from Second World War to the present, drawing extensively upon workers'' own personal stories of occupational accidents, disasters, injury, disease, overwork and disability. It covers a wide range of workplace issues, from stories of TNT poisoning and overwork in wartime, through to the asbestos and black lung disasters, and the modern-day epidemics' of stress, burn-out and Covid-19.Opening conversations surrounding the harms caused by work, this book analyses how people have lived with occupational illness and disability, critiquing risk and work-health cultures, and the stru
Trade ReviewThis is deeply moving and important account of how work is embodied; how the jobs British people have done damaged them physically and mentally. McIvor is the leading scholar of occupational illness and industry. His humanity and care for the subject is apparent on every page. -- Tim Strangleman, Professor of Sociology, University of Kent, UK
McIvor takes us into the lived interior of the destructive history of structural violence at work. I appreciated how much care went into weaving these difficult stories together to create a national history from below and from within. It is a model of how to geographically scale-up our analysis without losing our grounding in people’s lives. It represents oral history at its humanistic best. * Steven High, Professor of History, Concordia University, Canada *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements 1. Memory, Context and the Working Body 2.Talking Dirty: Narrating Toxic Exposure and Danger Stories 3. Industrial Legacies; Damaged Bodies 4. 'Fit for the Scrap Heap’: Remembering Losing Work and Health 5. Stress and Burn-Out: Narrating the Modern Work-Health Epidemic 6. Infected Bodies: From Anthrax to Covid-19 in the Workplace 7. Pushing Back: Health and Safety Activism and Environmentalism Conclusion Bibliography Index
