Dead laws for dead men

Daniel J. Curran

The coal mining industry has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 miners since the turn of the century and has disabled hundreds of thousands more. This account of the struggle for coal mine health and safety legislation in the United States examines the series of laws that steadily expanded the role of the federal government from the late 1800s through the 1980s. After reviewing the historical evidence, Daniel J. Curran concludes that federal legislation has done little to change the conditions in the coal mines. Moreover, the existence of laws did not even guarantee that the established standards could be implemented and enforced in a way that would resolve health and safety problems. By reconstructing the socioeconomic environment surrounding the creation of each major federal coal mine safety act, Curran argues that legislation remains open to interpretation throughout the time...

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