Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era. Nate Holdren

Abstract

In November 1909, a terrible fire broke out in a coal mine in Cherry, Illinois. Days later it became clear that 259 men and boys had died — some from the fire, some from suffocation, and some from exposure. One of the deceased, Samuel Howard, kept a diary of his final trial. His last entry read “10 to 1 p.m. Monday. The lives are going out. I think this is our last” (p. 128). The diary was found with Samuel’s body. Not far away was the body of Howard’s brother, Alfred. Nate Holdren’s Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and the Law in the Progressive Era has many unforgettable testimonies to the ravages industrial accidents brought upon workers and their families. Yet no moment is more staggering and emotive in this book then when Holdren lingers on the disaster in Cherry, Illinois. Having personalized Samuel Howard’s suffering, and having made clear the way relief efforts stripped away the cost of the disaster and turned it into a conversation about money rather than loss, Holdren presents a page of names. He writes, “read every single name, perhaps out loud” (p. 129). Holdren was right to ask us to do this.