In the second half of our descent into the era before worker protections, we shift from the coal dust and sewing floors of Part 1 into deeper tragedies—events so catastrophic they finally forced the public and politicians to act. We revisit disasters like the Monongah Mine explosion and the New London school blast, and we trace how slow, reluctant change emerged not from compassion—but from catastrophe. These are the stories of lives lost and the protections born from their memory.
Selected Bibliography & Further Reading:
Derickson, Alan. Black Lung: Anatomy of a Public Health Disaster. Cornell University Press, 1998.
Green, James. The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia’s Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2015.
Smith, Michael. Blast: The Disastrous History of Explosives. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. (For context on industrial explosions and safety.)
U.S. Department of Labor. The Monongah Mining Disaster of 1907. https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/monongah
Anderson, William. The New London School Explosion. Eakin Press, 1995.
McEvoy, Arthur. The Fishermen’s Problem: Ecology and Law in the California Fisheries, 1850–1980. Cambridge University Press, 1986. (For lesser-known maritime labor hazards.)
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) archives and historical milestones. https://www.osha.gov
