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Book ID: CBB747997899

When the Air Became Important: A Social History of the New England and Lancashire Textile Industries (2019)

Greenlees, Janet (Author)

Rutgers University Press
Publication date: 2019
Language: English

ISBN: 9780813587967

Publication Date: 2019
Physical Details: 264

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Cotton and cotton industry Environmental health; environmental medicine Communicable diseases Work environment Occupational safety; Occupational health Textile industry Social history 20th century 19th century England New England (U.S.)

In When the Air Became Important, medical historian Janet Greenlees examines the working environments of the heartlands of the British and American cotton textile industries from the nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries. Greenlees contends that the air quality within these pioneering workplaces was a key contributor to the health of the wider communities of which they were a part. Such enclosed environments, where large numbers of people labored in close quarters, were ideal settings for the rapid spread of diseases including tuberculosis, bronchitis and pneumonia. When workers left the factories for home, these diseases were transmitted throughout the local population, yet operatives also brought diseases into the factory. Other aerial hazards common to both the community and workplace included poor ventilation and noise. Emphasizing the importance of the peculiarities of place as well as employers’ balance of workers’ health against manufacturing needs, Greenlees’s pioneering book sheds light on the roots of contemporary environmentalism and occupational health reform. Her work highlights the complicated relationships among local business, local and national politics of health, and community priorities.

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Reviewed By

Review Jamie L. Bronstein (2022) Review of "When the Air Became Important: A Social History of the New England and Lancashire Textile Industries". American Historical Review (pp. 1555-1556). unapi

Review David Rosner (2023) Review of "When the Air Became Important: A Social History of the New England and Lancashire Textile Industries". Bulletin of the History of Medicine (pp. 165-167). unapi

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