Digging Our Own Graves: Coal Miners and the Struggle over Black Lung Disease by Barbara Ellen Smith

Abstract

700 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE become such an articulate and careful writer. Here is a remarkable period and a most remarkable man. Norman H. Clark Mr. Clark was part of the “oil field trash” in west Texas in 1948. His best-known works as a social historian are Mill Town (University of Washington Press, 1970) and Deliver Us from Evil: An Interpretation of American Prohibition (W. W. Norton, 1976). Digging Our Own Graves: Coal Miners and the Struggle over Black Lung Disease. By Barbara Ellen Smith. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987. Pp. xv + 270; notes, index. $24.95. In Digging Our Own Graves: Coal Miners and the Struggle over Black Lung Disease, Barbara Ellen Smith presents a comprehensive history of the controversial issue of black lung. The black lung movement was not the outgrowth of a single health issue but the result of human intervention, quest for economic growth, and technological advance­ ment. The birth of the movement took place in the Appalachian coalfields in 1969. Because the medical profession had not recognized the disease as a major occupational disease, little action had been taken to provide assistance to those who suffered from it or who had died and left surviving family members without a means of income. The black lung movement was a progressive movement. It was responsible for the inclusion of respirable dust standards and other disease prevention measures in the U. S. Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, played a major role in the takeover of the United Mine Workers Association by the rank and file, witnessed democratization of the union’s internal structure, and was responsible for the birth of a number of organizations that fought for enhanced health and safety benefits for miners and families. Smith covers a tremendous amount of material in the 270 pages of her book. A lengthy notes section provides the researcher with a variety of primary and secondary resources. The history is written in a concise manner, although the occasional instructions to see specific chapters indicates that the transition from dissertation to book could have been a little smoother. On the other hand, they alert the researcher to more information on the specific topic. Although a few of the chapter titles seem inappropriate, the text contained within the chapters certainly is not. Is a work such as this of value to historians of technology? The answer is undoubtedly yes. By carefully tracing and interweaving the social, economic, political, and technological developments, Smith addresses the ever-present issue of assessing the effects of a new or adopted technology on the present and future of society. Aside from the bibliography of documented resources, it provides researchers with a comprehensive case study of the effects of technology on society. It provides an overview ot technological advancements in the TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 701 coal industry, and the economic, social, and political effects of these advancements on the workers and on society. It is a gentle reminder that we must maintain a liberal perspective on technology and not allow ourselves to become oblivious to its application. Gay Bindocci Dr. Bindocci is an assistant professor in Mining Extension Service, College of Mineral and Energy Resources, at West Virginia University. She is currently working on annotated bibliographies on women in the American coal industry and women in technology. The Channel Tunnel Story. By Michael R. Bonavia. Pomfret, Vt.: David & Charles, 1987. Pp. 173; illustrations, appendixes, index. $24.95. Since the commencement of the tunnel’s construction in 1987, at least half a dozen books have purported to tell the history of the project to tunnel beneath the English Channel. Michael Bonavia’s slim volume constitutes an honest, informative contribution to “the full story” promised on the jacket. For seven crucial years, the author headed the channel tunnel-planning team of British Railways. He writes, therefore, with considerable knowledge of the 1967—74 period of railway research and preparation that culminated in the 1974-75 episode of actual construction. The early chapters cover the history of the scheme from the hrst known proposal—by Albert Mathieu-Favier in 1802—to the definitive revival in 1957 by the Channel Tunnel Study Group. In view...