Gerald
Markowitz
Distinguished Professor
Phone number
212.237.8458
Room number
6.65.06

Areas of expertise

Faculty Expertise: topics/keywords
20th century history and the history of public health, environmental health, and occupational safety and health.

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Education
PhD  University of Wisconsin
MA    University of Wisconsin BA     Earlham College
Bio
Gerald Markowitz is Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He received his doctorate from the Department of History of the University of Wisconsin and has been teaching at John Jay since 1970. He is the recipient of numerous grants from private and federal agencies, including the Milbank Memorial Fund, National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation. He has been awarded the Viseltear Prize for Outstanding Work in the History of the Public Health from the American Public Health Association in 2000. Together with David Rosner he has authored and edited books and articles on occupational safety and health, including: Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of America’s Children (with David Rosner) (Berkeley: University of California Press/ Milbank Memorial Fund, 2013); The Contested Boundaries of American Public HealthUniversity of California Press and Milbank Memorial Fund, 2002, paper 2003;  Are We Ready? The Public Health Response to 9/11, (University of California Press, 2006), Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial PollutionDeadly Dust: Silicosis and the Politics of Occupational Disease in Twentieth Century America, (Princeton University Press, 2002); Dying for Work (Indiana University Press, 1987); Slaves of the Depression: Workers' Letters about Life on the Job (Cornell University Press, 1987);“‘Ain’t Necessarily So!’: The Brake Industry’s Impact on Asbestos Regulation in the 1970s,” American Journal of Public Health, 107 (September 2017), 1395 - 1399 (with David Rosner); “The Childhood Lead Poisoning Epidemic in Historical Perspective,” Endeavour, 40 (June 2016), 93-101 ; “’Unleashed on an Unsuspecting World’: The Asbestos Information Association and Its Role in Perpetuating a National Epidemic,”  (with D. Rosner), American Journal of Public Health, 106 (May, 2016), 834-840; “Building the World That Kills Us: The Politics of Lead, Science, and Polluted Homes, 1970 to 2000," Journal of Urban History, 42 (March 2016), 323 - 345. (With D. Rosner); “‘Educate the Individual . . . to a Sane Appreciation of the Risk’: A History of Industry’s Responsibility to Warn of Job Dangers Before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration,” American Journal of Public Health, 106 (January 2016), No. 1, pp. 28-35. (with David Rosner); “Persistent Pollutants:  A Brief History of The Discovery of the Widespread Toxicity of Chlorinated Hydrocarbons,” (with David Rosner) Environmental Research, 120 (January 2013), 126-133.  “Politicizing Science: The Case of the Bush Administration’s Influence on the Lead Advisory Panel at the Centers for Disease Control,” Journal of Public Health Policy, 24 (2003),105-129; “Industry Challenges to the Principle of Prevention in Public Health: The Precautionary Principle in Historical Perspective,” Public Health Reports, 117 (November/ December 2002), 501-512; “‘Cater to the Children’ The Role of the Lead Industry in a Public Health Tragedy, 1900-1955,” (with D. Rosner), American Journal of Public Health, 90 (January, 2000), 36-46; The Reawakening of National Concern about Silicosis,” Public Health Reports 113 (July/August 1998), 302-311;“Workers, Industry, and the Control of Information: Silicosis and the Industrial Hygiene Foundation,” Journal of Public Health Policy, 16 (Spring, 1995), 29-58; “The Limits of Thresholds, Silica and the Politics of Science, 1935-1990,” American Journal of Public Health, 85 (February, 1995), 253-262. 

 Children, Race and Power     Are We Ready? Public health Since 9/11     Deadly Dust     Deceit and Denial
Scholarly Work

Books:

Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of America’s Children (with David Rosner) (Berkeley: University of California Press/ Milbank Memorial Fund, 2013)

The Contested Boundaries of Public Health, (co-edited with James Colgrove and David Rosner), Rutgers University Press, 2008.

Are We Ready? Public Health Since 9/11 (with David Rosner) (Berkeley: University of California Press/ Milbank Memorial Fund, 2006).

Deadly Dust: Silicosis and the On-Going Struggle to Protect Workers' Health (New and Expanded edition) (with David Rosner) (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006).

Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, (with David Rosner), Berkeley: University of California Press/Milbank Memorial Fund, 2002; paper, 2003; new expanded edition, 2012)

Children, Race, and Power: Kenneth and Mamie Clarks' Northside Center, (with David Rosner), (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996; Paperback: New York: Routledge, 2000)

World Civilizations, Sources, Images, and Interpretations, volumes 1 and 2 (ed. Western Hemisphere selections) (NY: McGraw Hill, Inc, 1994, 4th edition, 2005).

Deadly Dust: Silicosis and the Politics of Industrial Disease in Twentieth Century America, (with D. Rosner), (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991; paperback ed. Fall 1994). (Noted as an  Outstanding Academic Book of 1991  by Choice).

 Slaves of the Depression : Workers Letters About Life on the Job (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987,) (ed. with D. Rosner)  

Dying for Work: Workers' Safety and Health in Twentieth Century America (ed. with D. Rosner) (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987; paperback ed. 1989). (Noted as an  Outstanding Academic Books of 1987  by Choice).

Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984) (with M. Park).

New Deal for Art (Hamilton, N.Y.: Gallery Association of New York State, 1977) (with M. Park).

The Anti-Imperialists, 1898-1902 (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1976).