Despite the immense literature on the social history of industrialization and workers’ political movements, there had been virtually no published work on the social history of health hazards and of work-related diseases. First published in 1985, The Social History of Occupational Health is the first to explore this neglected area from the perspectives of social history.

The chapters focus on several issues, placing health at work in a socio-political context. The issues include questions of industrial compensation and the enforcement of safety standards in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as related to controversies of the time on standards of living during industrialization. A number of chapters present international comparisons, particularly regarding working conditions and social policy in Britain and Germany, for example concerning legislation, labour relations, and health and safety standards. Other chapters consider safety at work councils in Italy under fascism and working conditions of women in the 1914–18 war. This book will be a beneficial read for social historians and medical sociologists.