Dora Costa
Werner Troesken has written a fascinating detective story of a little-known environmental disaster. He shows that lead from water pipes killed and sickened millions without anyone realizing the culprit's identity. Underdeveloped scientific knowledge, cost considerations, municipal water-supply boosterism, and liability law led to a complete denial of the evidence. Essential for anyone interested in public health, science, history, or politcs.
Stanley Engerman
Werner Troesken's superb analysis of a wide variety of sources makes a major contribution to both historical studies of heath and medicine and to contemporary health policy debates. The problems created by lead water pipes existed in the United States and Britain for more than a century, and Troesken uses data past and present to detail the causes, effects, and consequences of the resulting health troubles, and how and why public officials avoided dealing with them. This is an important book for historians, public health officials, and social scientists.
Endorsement
Werner Troesken's superb analysis of a wide variety of sources makes a major contribution to both historical studies of heath and medicine and to contemporary health policy debates. The problems created by lead water pipes existed in the United States and Britain for more than a century, and Troesken uses data past and present to detail the causes, effects, and consequences of the resulting health troubles, and how and why public officials avoided dealing with them. This is an important book for historians, public health officials, and social scientists.
—
Stanley Engerman, John H. Munro Professor of Economics and Professor of History, University of Rochester, coauthor of
Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery
From the Publisher
Werner Troesken has written a fascinating detective story of a little-known environmental disaster. He shows that lead from water pipes killed and sickened millions without anyone realizing the culprit's identity. Underdeveloped scientific knowledge, cost considerations, municipal water-supply boosterism, and liability law led to a complete denial of the evidence. Essential for anyone interested in public health, science, history, or politcs.
—
Dora Costa, Professor of Economics, MIT
A full and valuable discussion of a long-neglected public health problem.
—
Herbert Needleman, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
Werner Troesken's superb analysis of a wide variety of sources makes a major contribution to both historical studies of heath and medicine and to contemporary health policy debates. The problems created by lead water pipes existed in the United States and Britain for more than a century, and Troesken uses data past and present to detail the causes, effects, and consequences of the resulting health troubles, and how and why public officials avoided dealing with them. This is an important book for historians, public health officials, and social scientists.
—
Stanley Engerman, John H. Munro Professor of Economics and Professor of History, University of Rochester, coauthor of
Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery
Herbert Needleman
A full and valuable discussion of a long-neglected public health problem.
