Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781108488709)

The late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century US economy maimed and killed employees at an astronomically high rate, while the legal system left the injured and their loved ones with little recourse. In the 1910s, US states enacted workers' compensation laws, which required employers to pay a portion of the financial costs of workplace injuries. Nate Holdren uses a range of archival materials, interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives, and compelling narration to criticize the shortcomings of these laws. While compensation laws were a limited improvement for employees in economic terms, Holdren argues that these laws created new forms of inequality, causing people with disabilities to lose their jobs, while also resulting in new forms of inhumanity. Ultimately, this study raises questions about law and class and about when and whether our economy and our legal system produce justice or injustice.

Author: Nate Holdren
ISBN-10: 1108488706
ISBN-13: 9781108488709
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/09/2020
Pages: 300
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.50w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2021