Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935 / Edition 1

by Claudia Clark

Overview

In the early twentieth century, a group of women workers hired to apply luminous paint to watch faces and instrument dials found themselves among the first victims of radium poisoning. Claudia Clark's book tells the compelling story of these women, who at first had no idea that the tedious task of dialpainting was any different from the other factory jobs available to them. But after repeated exposure to the radium-laced paint, they began to develop mysterious, often fatal illnesses that they traced to conditions in the workplace. Their fight to have their symptoms recognized as an industrial disease represents an important chapter in the history of modern health and labor policy. Clark's account emphasizes the social and political factors that influenced the responses of the workers, managers, government officials, medical specialists, and legal authorities involved in the case. She enriches the story by exploring contemporary disputes over workplace control, government intervention, and industry-backed medical research. Finally, in appraising the dialpainters' campaign to secure compensation and prevention of further incidents—efforts launched with the help of the reform-minded, middle-class women of the Consumers' League—Clark is able to evaluate the achievements and shortcomings of the industrial health movement as a whole.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807846407
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	07/31/1997
Edition description:	1
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,101,942
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	1410L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Claudia Clark (1954-2003) taught history at Central Michigan University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The best histories of medicine and public health describe the political, economic, legal, and social ingredients of disease. Clark deftly adds gender to that mix, but perhaps most importantly, she cogently argues that the moral issues inherent in controlling knowledge about what makes people sick (and who is responsible) continue to determine environmental and industrial health policy today.—Environmental History



Provides an understanding of the situation of one sector of working class women, and the strengths and weaknesses of one of the major middle-class women's social reform organizations of the Progressive Era in the period of World War I. . . . Clark does an excellent job of showing the weaknesses of the company and state medical investigators, and the economic and political ties which kept them from conscientiously defending worker or public health. Her story also makes clear many of the limitations of the middle-class reform movement and of Progressive Era reformers in general.—Against the Current



A considerable achievement. . . . A salutary and sobering story of the damage inflicted on a very vulnerable group of young women and of the reactions of confusion, denial, subterfuge and sometimes frank dishonesty which the emerging facts provoked.—Medical History



Provides judicious and engaging summaries, not shunning ethical issues and moral challenges. It is these deliberations which make the book a pleasure and a profit to read.—Labor History



Well written and provocative . . . illuminate[s] the significance of occupational disease in American workplaces, while exploring how reformers during the Progressive period sought to draw attention to them.—Technology & Culture



An extraordinarily rich and rewarding book. . . . Clark provides a sophisticated and complex analysis of the interaction of labor, reformers, industrial physicians, academics, and industry that illuminates the specifics of this case as well as the development of industrial hygiene in general. . . . Radium Girls is a brilliant case study of the radium dial industry. But it is much more. It should be of interest to those interested in social history, women's history, and labor history and the development of public health in the United States.—Journal of American History



Adroitly combines social, industrial, and labor history to demonstrate the impressive power of determined, organized women.—Kirkus Reviews



This is a first rate book that provides the most detailed and focussed discussion to date of an important episode in occupational health history. It should be read by social and labor historians as well as policy makers concerned with contemporary issues in occupational disease regulation. It is a very important book that combines social, women's, and public policy history.—David Rosner, author of Deadly Dust: Silicosis and the Politics of Occupational Disease



Provides an interesting social and human perspective on a classic health physics case.—Health Physics

Editorial Reviews

"Radium Girls" is an important book for anyone interested in industrial health, women 's health, or the history of radiation.

"New England Journal of Medicine"

""Radium Girls" is an important book for anyone interested in industrial health, womenUs health, or the history of radiation.

"New England Journal of Medicine""

"Radium Girls" is a brilliant case study of the radium dial industry. But it is much more.

"Journal of American History"

A compelling and eminently readable book.

"Social History of Medicine"

A rich education in how 'knowledge about industrial diseases is a contested site of power'.

"Labor Studies Journal"

Well written and provocative.

"Technology & Culture"

From the Publisher

Radium Girls is an important book for anyone interested in industrial health, women's health, or the history of radiation. It captures the often neglected experiences and contributions of the painters. Most important, it powerfully reminds us that it is not enough to take precautions only against known toxins. Instead, we must struggle to anticipate new risks in our changing industrial and social environments.

New England Journal of Medicine