Books by Charles Levenstein

A lifelong academic and teacher, Charles Levenstein has written poetry since the age of fifteen but was rarely published until the year 2000. Toward the end of his career, he watched one of his peers find comfort in projects outside the university environment. His peer built a sailboat as a form of solace and escape. Levenstein-never good with tools-sought a similar peace from the pressures of teaching. He then developed sleep apnea, which kept him awake most nights. Instead of suffering in the dark, he got up and found his tool: the written word. He lost himself in poetry. Some of the work was therapeutic, working through the inevitable sorrows and losses of a long life. The Ponderous Galapagos Turtle is the culmination of fifteen years of poetic practice. The symbol of the turtle is one of endurance and strength. To Levenstein, turtles may not be spectacular, but they survive-as do humans. Certain truths embrace the human spirit in us all and rise to the surface like a turtle taking a breath.

Presents a story of the 50-year struggle for recognition in the US of this pernicious occupational disease. This title explores three instances from the 1930s to the 1960s in which evidence suggested the existence of brown lung in the mills, yet nothing was done.

Locates workers' health and safety problems in the broad political economy. This title argues that without a deep understanding of the social/political/economic context of particular industries or workplaces, we cannot fully grasp the process of recognition and control of industrial hazards.