Monongah

Davitt McAteer is internationally recognized as an expert on mine and workplace health and safety. He worked with consumer advocate Ralph Nader to help enact the landmark 1969 Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act. During the 1970s, he led the safety and health programs of the United Mine Workers of America and founded the Occupational Safety and Health Law Center. During his career, Mr. McAteer has consulted and lectured extensively on health and safety issues for governments, unions, and corporations in South Africa, China, Australia, Chili, Peru and elsewhere. From 1994 to 2000, he served as Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health at the US Department of Labor under President Clinton and for nearly two years, 1996 to 1997, also served as Acting Solicitor of the US Department of Labor. Shortly after the 9-11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, he was called on as an advisor to the recovery efforts at Ground Zero, consulting with union representatives of equipment operators and subway workers. Mr. McAteer served as Vice President of Wheeling Jesuit University from 2005 until his retirement in June, 2012. On four occasions, at the request of two West Virginia Governors, he has conducted independent investigations into mine disasters and accidents. Most recently in April of 2010, then West Virginia Governor, Joe Manchin, III, requested that McAteer conduct an independent investigation into the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, the largest coal mine disaster in the United States in forty years, which resulted in the deaths of twenty-nine miners. He has testified before Congress on safety and health issues on numerous occasions.

"Monongah is a major scholary work, and another in a series of WVU Press offerings that tells previously untold stories about the people who really built West Virginia, and often suffered in doing so." Ken Ward, The West Virginia Lawyer "[Monongah] is a compelling, cautionary tale of avarice and corruption, as well as a testament to the ultimate resilience of exploited people." Shirley Stewart Burns, The Journal of Southern History "McAteer's work is undeniably significant and his extensive research is evident." Joshua Stahlman, Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies McAteer skillfully analyzes the tragedy, examining players on the company side from the upper levels of the rich and powerful to the mine supervision and operations level, while giving equal weight and voice to the immigrant groups that provided the vast majority of the victims... It is fortuante that a man of David McAteer's caliber undertook to tell the tragic story." Charles McCollester, West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional History