Dig where you stand: a book that investigates the hidden history of work and occupational health

The Swedish writer Sven Lindqvist (1932-2019) is best known to English-speaking audiences for his clear-eyed dissection of colonial violence in Exterminate all the Brutes and for his account, in A History of Bombing, of the way that techniques and ideologies of extermination, perpetrated on colonial subjects, were reimported to Europe.12 In Dig Where You Stand, recently translated into English for the first time, Lindqvist investigates the hidden history of work; what corporate accounts and the biographies of industrialists omit.3 Taking Swedish cement manufacture as a case study, the book serves as a toolkit using self-education, historical research, and political solidarity to fill the gaps where workers’ lives should be. One effect is to illuminate choices and ideologies that have impacted on occupational health.Cement dust is toxic—a hazard to workers, known as such since at least the late 19th Century. The particles irritate eyes and skin, and when inhaled cause airway…
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