Troesken, Werner 1963-

views updated

Troesken, Werner 1963-

PERSONAL:

Born October 20, 1963. Education: Marquette University, B.S.; Washington University in St. Louis, M.A., Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—George Mason University, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, 4400 University Dr., Ste. 3A3, Fairfax, VA 22030. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Academic and historian. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, professor. Formerly professor at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA; Hoover Institution National Fellow; research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; senior investigator and project leader at the Center for Population Economics at the University of Chicago.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Best book award, Economic History Association, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Why Regulate Utilities? The New Institutional Economics and the Chicago Gas Industry, 1849-1924, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1996.

Water, Race, and Disease, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2004.

Death and the City: Chicago's Mortality Transition, 1850-1925, National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2006.

(With Karen Clay and Michael Haines) Lead Pipes and Child Mortality, National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, MA), 2006.

Coeditor of Social Science History. Editorial board member of Journal of Economic History.

SIDELIGHTS:

Werner Troesken is an academic and historian. He completed a bachelor of science degree from Marquette University and went on to conduct graduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis, completing a master of arts degree and a Ph.D. there. In 2007 Troesken moved to Virginia, becoming a professor of economics and history at George Mason University and the F.A. Harper Professor of Economics at the university's Mercatus Center. Troesken has also served additional academic positions, including as a national fellow with the Hoover Institution, a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a senior investigator and project leader with the Center for Population Economics at the University of Chicago. He is currently a professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh.

In 2006 Troesken published The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster. The book looks at a 150-year period of lead usage in municipal water pipes, including the corrosion that caused a number of health problems in New York, Boston, and Glasgow. The history shows the indifference to doctors who proposed lead as the cause of the decline in health of city inhabitants over time and the politics involved in avoiding dealing with the severity of the issue.

P. Barry Ryan, writing in Environmental Health Perspectives, found the book "well-referenced," full of "compelling insight," and "well-researched." Ryan noted that "although an excellent read overall, the book is not without flaws. I was troubled by the mixing of units for lead concentration given in the text," adding that "the constant switching back and forth was at times annoying and made interpretation more difficult." Ryan concluded, however, that "on balance, Troesken's book is quite solid and is recommended to all those interested in the history of this specific problem or of public health epidemiology in general." Mark Aldrich, writing in the Business History Review, commented that "although I am enthusiastic about what Troesken has achieved in this book, I would suggest three steps he might have taken to strengthen his argument." Aldrich first suggested that the appendix "where he estimates the effect of lead on infant mortality in Massachusetts around 1900 and in England in the 1880s" should be expanded. Second, Aldrich wished that Troesken "had paid more attention to chronology. As it is, the chapters jump back and forth between 1850 and 1930, making it impossible to discover changes or trends." Aldrich also suggested that "Troesken might have better integrated his own work into the broader scholarship that exists on lead poisoning and on public health and medical history." Aldrich concluded that "despite these concerns, I consider The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster an important piece of scholarship that should command a broad audience."

David Rosner, reviewing the book in the American Scientist, mentioned that The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster "is of enormous importance in documenting yet another way in which lead has polluted the environment and destroyed the lives and well-being of people around the world." Rosner brought up some points of criticism in his review as well. Rosner recalled that "Troesken's failure to provide detailed social histories of the communities he uses as examples left me wondering whether his implied conclusions about the failure of ‘municipal socialism’ are justified." Rosner added that "Troesken may be right in asserting that lead pipe was used throughout the system, but given the city's complex political history, I'd like to see more documentation than the few newspaper articles he cites. A close social history would have provided contradictory evidence." Rosner also questioned "the data on levels of lead in blood and water that Troesken uses in the quantitative parts of his study, given how difficult it was back then to isolate lead in the laboratory." In conclusion, Rosner noted that "these specific caveats aside, The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster is a challenging and important contribution to our understanding of one of the great public health problems of the past two centuries—lead and its pollution of the environment. Troesken has provided us with new insights, and we should applaud him for it." Brooklyn Weintraub, reviewing the book in Library Journal, "recommended" the book, calling it "a real shocker."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, April 1, 2005, Kenneth F. Kiple, review of Water, Race, and Disease, p. 501.

American Scientist, November 1, 2007, David Rosner, review of The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster.

Business History Review, fall, 2007, Mark Aldrick, review of The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster, p. 581.

Chemical Heritage, fall, 2007, James Whorton, review of The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster, p. 44.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, February 1, 1997, review of Why Regulate Utilities? The New Institutional Economics and the Chicago Gas Industry, 1849-1924, p. 1013; March 1, 2005, K. Edgerton, review of Water, Race, and Disease, p. 1268; August 1, 2007, R.M. Ferguson, review of The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster, p. 2127.

Contemporary Sociology, July 1, 2005, Martha Crum, review of Water, Race, and Disease, p. 368.

Environmental Health Perspectives, January, 2008, P. Barry Ryan, review of The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster.

E-Streams: Electronic Reviews of Science & Technology References, January 1, 2005, Robert B. Ridinger, review of Water, Race, and Disease.

Isis, December 1, 2007, Gerald Markowitz, review of The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster, p. 859.

JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, April 11, 2007, Leonardo Trasande, review of The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster, p. 1601.

Journal of American History, September 1, 2005, Susan L. Smith, review of Water, Race, and Disease, p. 646.

Journal of American Studies, August 1, 2006, George Rehin, review of Water, Race, and Disease, p. 455.

Journal of Economic History, September 1, 2005, William J. Collins, review of Water, Race, and Disease, p. 874.

Journal of Economic Literature, September 1, 1997, review of Why Regulate Utilities?, p. 1507.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, fall, 2005, Kenneth W. Goings, review of Water, Race, and Disease, p. 285.

Journal of Urban History, May 1, 2001, review of Why Regulate Utilities?, p. 520.

Library Journal, November 1, 2006, Brooklyn Weintraub, review of The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster, p. 103.

Mason Gazette, August 13, 2007, Colleen Kearney Rich, "Fall Brings New Class of Distinguished Faculty to Mason."

Regional Science & Urban Economics, November 1, 2005, review of Water, Race, and Disease, p. 883.

Technology and Culture, October 1, 1998, Robert C. Means, review of Why Regulate Utilities?, p. 797; January 1, 2008, Damon Yarnell, review of The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster, p. 285.