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Werner Troesken

Werner Troesken is Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and Faculty Research Associate at NBER. He is the author of Water, Race, and Disease (MIT Press, 2004).

Titles by This Author

The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster

By Werner Troesken

In The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster, Werner Troesken looks at a long-running environmental and public health catastrophe: 150 years of lead pipes in local water systems and the associated sickness, premature death, political inaction, and social denial. The harmful effects of lead water pipes became apparent almost as soon as cities the world over began to install them.

Water, Race, and Disease

By Werner Troesken

Why, at the peak of the Jim Crow era early in the twentieth century, did life expectancy for African Americans rise dramatically? And why, when public officials were denying African Americans access to many other public services, did public water and sewer service for African Americans improve and expand? Using the qualitative and quantitative tools of demography, economics, geography, history, law, and medicine, Werner Troesken shows that the answers to these questions are closely connected.