Nearly 80 years after his death, Lewis Hine's name is revered in the world of photography and practically synonymous with the labor reforms of the Progressive Era. His body of work--much of it a century old or more--remains vital as both aesthetic statement and social document.

Drawing on a range of sources, including information from surviving family members, this first full-length illustrated biography presents a detailed and personal portrait of the sociologist and photographer whose haunting images of children at work in cotton mills and coal mines sparked the movement to end child labor, culminating with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. There are 62 of his penetrating photographs included.