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Paperback
Publisher: University of California Press
Deceit and Denial details the attempts by the chemical and lead industries to deceive Americans about the dangers that their deadly products present to workers, the public, and consumers. Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner pursued evidence steadily and relentlessly, interviewed the important players, investigated untapped sources, and uncovered a bruising story of cynical and cruel disregard for health and human rights. This resulting exposé is full of startling revelations, provocative arguments, and disturbing conclusions--all based on remarkable research and information gleaned from secret industry documents.
This book reveals for the first time the public relations campaign that the lead industry undertook to convince Americans to use its deadly product to paint walls, toys, furniture, and other objects in America's homes, despite a wealth of information that children were at risk for serious brain damage and death from ingesting this poison. This book highlights the immediate dangers ordinary citizens face because of the relentless failure of industrial polluters to warn, inform, and protect their workers and neighbors. It offers a historical analysis of how corporate control over scientific research has undermined the process of proving the links between toxic chemicals and disease. The authors also describe the wisdom, courage, and determination of workers and community members who continue to voice their concerns in spite of vicious opposition. Readable, pathbreaking, and revelatory, Deceit and Denial provides crucial answers to questions of dangerous environmental degradation, escalating corporate greed, and governmental disregard for its citizens' safety and health.
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| The academic equivalent of shock and awe |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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"Lawsuits... against some of the largest chemical and petrochemical companies in the world have led to the discovery of documents that show lying, manipulation of government officials, and secrecy as tools used by industry to protect its product. What emerges is a history of deceit that is strikingly similar to that of the asbestos and tobacco industries." [This and all quotes from my review are from Deceit and Denial]
Deceit and Denial is an exceptionally well researched book that lays bare the astounding extent of American corporate and political malfeasance with regard to industrial pollution in the 20th century, specifically focusing on the lead, chemical, and plastics industries. The authors' use of hitherto unseen primary source documents from corporate archives to make their case adds tremendous weight to the argument that industrial pollution damages not only people's physical health and the environment in which they live but also undermines our country's social and democratic institutions.
Deceit and Denial eloquently and thoroughly expounds on the proposition that corporate self-regulation is dangerous and that "when it comes to public health, the society has a right to insist that the community's interests come before the shareholders' profits." The reader is also reminded of a notion that has fallen by the wayside in post-9/11 America: it is "absolutely essential to have as much openness and free access to information as possible."
These ideas may not be new but you would be mistaken in thinking that this book is the product of a radical left-wing or environmentalist agenda. This is scholarly research of the first order. Deceit and Denial succeeds in being not only a damning indictment of past corporate machinations and political complicity but a lucid exposition of the critical issues that industry and our nation currently face in the 21st century.
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| Useless |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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As a work of scholarship whose purpose is to provide an understanding of the the "...politics of industrial pollution", this book is nearly useless. The main problems are: 1) undocumented assertions are made in every chapter, 2) terms which are critical to the book, such as "toxic" and "high cancer death rate", are never defined, and 3) the treatment is anachronistic throughout. It is difficult to believe that authors who make the statement, "...new classes of disease and damage to the body that are too subtle to even measure" (p. 296) actually know anything about the subject.
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| Excellent Read |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I read this book about 2 years ago after my manager gave it to me. It is an excellent, non-sensationalized, review of historical actions of large corporations which compromised the public health of our citizens. It is well supported by cited references. A must read for occupational health professionals who are working to protect employees against little known hazards.
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| A Real Service! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This is an extraordinary book. Unlike other books that address the corruption of industry, this book has the documents and information that you really need. Few stories of environmental duplicity ever provide this kind of detail and data. But most importantly, it read like a detective story, which, in fact, it is! Bill Moyers is absolutely correct in his cover blurb! What a joy to read.
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| A Real Service! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This is an extraordinary book. Unlike other books that address the corruption of industry, this book has the documents and information that you really need. Few stories of environmental duplicity ever provide this kind of detail and data. But most importantly, it reads like a detective story, which, in fact, it is! Bill Moyers is absolutely correct in his cover blurb! What a joy to read.
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