Book No: 90
Title: Triangle: The Fire That Changed America
Author: David Von Drehle
Genre: Fiction
Published: 2003
Obtained: 2007/Paperbackswap
Completed: 12/28/08
No. of Pages: 340
Rating: 4/5*****
On a beautiful spring day, March 25, 1911 a little over 200 people went to work at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. At 5:45 PM, just as everyone was getting prepared to go home a small fire began. Within moments the factory was an inferno. In less than 30 minutes 146 people died, almost all of them women between the ages of 14 and 30. Until September 11, 2001 it was the worst workplace disaster in New York history.
David Von Drehle does a masterful job in not only telling of the events leading up to this completely preventable disaster, it does a fantastic job of giving names and faces to many of the young women, almost all Jewish immigrants, and telling some of their background. He details much of the history of the ‘sweatshops’ of New York and the beginning uprising of the textile workers as they founded the ILWU, the machinations of Tammany Hall, New York’s corrupt patronage system.
Meticulously researched the book also details the ensuing trial and how this fire led to the fall of Tammany and changed workplace conditions for millions of workers. I also applaud his appendix, which lists every victim and gives them all a small biography. A fascinating look at a truly horrific event in New York history.
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