TRIANGLE: THE FIRE THAT CHANGED AMERICA Jan 21, 2008
by Margaret8
The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in lower Manhattan on March 25, 1911 lasted only one-half hour, but it was a half-hour that changed our nation. For ninety years it was the worst workplace disaster in American history, with a final death toll of 146, a disaster that ultimately led to a wave of reform ? not all of which has endured.
Through skillful storytelling VonDrehle leads us carefully through a detailed history of the labor movement that sought to raise the working standards of immigrants, details the deplorable working conditions that led to many strikes, and introduces us to the complex machinations of New York?s Tammany Hall. It illustrates how the lives of the immigrants who both perished and lived became intricately linked with those of politicians, wealthy suffragists and reformers. Triangle is a story that readers will not soon forget.