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Triangle: The Fire That Changed America
“Outstanding… social history at its best.” –The New York Times Book Review
“An amazing, long-forgotten tale. A riveting history written with flair and precision.”—Bob Woodward
In one of the most honored books of the year, David Von Drehle transports us to a beautiful spring day in March 1911 when 146 workers—most of them young immigrant women—lost their lives. Employees had just begun preparing to leave the Triangle shirtwaist factory in New York’s Greenwich Village when a fire broke out and within minutes consumed the building’s upper three stories. It was the worst workplace disaster in New York City history until 9/11.
“Animated by vigorous, descriptive prose, Triangle carries the reader deep into a portrait of early-twentieth-century New York . . . when colorful machine politicians battled socialists, suffragists and upright progressive reformers for the soul of an increasingly immigrant city.” —Chicago Tribune
“Von Drehle’s spellbinding and detailed reconstruction of the disaster is complemented by an equally gripping account of the factory owners’ subsequent manslaughter trial (they got off scot-free), drawing on court records he helped unearth.” —The New York Times
“Behind the fire lay the extraordinary history of sweatshop labor and the fledgling beginnings of union organizing. The heart of Von Drehle’s book is its detailed, nuanced, mesmerizing description of the fire. The descriptions . . .leave a reader staring into space.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
Praise for David Von Drehle's Triangle:
New York Times Extended List Best Seller • New York Times Book Review Notable Book •Washington Post Book World Rave of the Year • New York Public Library Book of the Year • New York Society Library Book of the Year • Fresh Air Critic’s Top Book of 2003 • Hadassah Top Ten Jewish Best Seller • ALA Notable Book of the Year • Winner of the 2004 Christopher Award • Winner of the 2004 Sidney Hillman Foundation Award •Amazon Top 50 Books of the Year • San Jose Mercury News Best Book • Rocky Mountain News Best Book • Providence Journal Critic’s Choice
Cover design by Marcia Salo and Charles Rue Woods
Cover photograph courtesy of Culver Pictures
Photo imaging by Michael Tedesco
Grove Press books are distributed by Publishers Group West
“An amazing, long-forgotten tale. A riveting history written with flair and precision.”—Bob Woodward
In one of the most honored books of the year, David Von Drehle transports us to a beautiful spring day in March 1911 when 146 workers—most of them young immigrant women—lost their lives. Employees had just begun preparing to leave the Triangle shirtwaist factory in New York’s Greenwich Village when a fire broke out and within minutes consumed the building’s upper three stories. It was the worst workplace disaster in New York City history until 9/11.
“Animated by vigorous, descriptive prose, Triangle carries the reader deep into a portrait of early-twentieth-century New York . . . when colorful machine politicians battled socialists, suffragists and upright progressive reformers for the soul of an increasingly immigrant city.” —Chicago Tribune
“Von Drehle’s spellbinding and detailed reconstruction of the disaster is complemented by an equally gripping account of the factory owners’ subsequent manslaughter trial (they got off scot-free), drawing on court records he helped unearth.” —The New York Times
“Behind the fire lay the extraordinary history of sweatshop labor and the fledgling beginnings of union organizing. The heart of Von Drehle’s book is its detailed, nuanced, mesmerizing description of the fire. The descriptions . . .leave a reader staring into space.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
Praise for David Von Drehle's Triangle:
New York Times Extended List Best Seller • New York Times Book Review Notable Book •Washington Post Book World Rave of the Year • New York Public Library Book of the Year • New York Society Library Book of the Year • Fresh Air Critic’s Top Book of 2003 • Hadassah Top Ten Jewish Best Seller • ALA Notable Book of the Year • Winner of the 2004 Christopher Award • Winner of the 2004 Sidney Hillman Foundation Award •Amazon Top 50 Books of the Year • San Jose Mercury News Best Book • Rocky Mountain News Best Book • Providence Journal Critic’s Choice
Cover design by Marcia Salo and Charles Rue Woods
Cover photograph courtesy of Culver Pictures
Photo imaging by Michael Tedesco
Grove Press books are distributed by Publishers Group West
340 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2003
762 people are currently reading
11630 people want to read
About the author
David von Drehle
21 books178 followersDavid von Drehle is the author of three previous books, including the award-winning Triangle, a history of the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire that The New York Times called "social history at its best." An editor-at-large at Time magazine, he and his family live in Kansas City, Missouri.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidv...
http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidv...
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August 26, 2023
“[Isidore] Abramowitz was taking his coat and hat from a nearby peg when he noticed the fire in his scrap bin. Perhaps the cutter had been sneaking a smoke while his assistants prepared the table…Or maybe it was the cutter’s assistant. At any rate, the fire marshal would later conclude that someone tossed a match or cigarette butt into Abramowitz’s scrap bin before it was completely extinguished. Cotton is even more flammable than paper, explosively so. Those airy scraps of sheer fabric and tissue paper, loosely heaped and full of oxygen, amounted to a virtual firebomb. Just above the peg where Abramowitz kept his coat was a ledge with three red fire pails on it. The cutter grabbed one and dumped it on the little flame, but this did no good. The fire grew geometrically in the space of a few seconds…”
- David Von Drehle, Triangle: The Fire that Changed America
A tall building burns in New York City. Tendrils of flame snake from broken windows. Smoke pours into the sky. On the ground, a crowd forms, watching in helpless horror. The Fire Department arrives, desperate to help, but their ladders do not reach high enough.
And then, a figure appears at a window, looks around for a miracle, and jumps into the emptiness.
It is March 25, 1911.
By the time the fire is extinguished, 146 people – mostly female garment workers, most incredibly young – have died. Later, bodies will be placed into coffins on the sidewalk. Later still, news will filter out that the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, where the blaze occurred, had locked exits to prevent workers from stealing time or property.
In Triangle, David Von Drehle provides a complete account of this compelling and tragic story, which – for a time – held the dubious honor of being New York’s worst workplace disaster.
***
This is a fire book, to be sure, but it is a lot more than that. Von Drehle has much bigger things on his mind, and the actual conflagration does not begin until over a hundred pages have gone by. Instead, the first several chapters are devoted to context, context, context.
For example, Von Drehle expends a lot of ink trying to retrieve the lives of the workers from the expanse of an uncaring history. These were mostly Jewish or Italian immigrants who had arrived in waves chasing the elusive “American Dream.” What they discovered were cramped tenements, terrible living conditions, and factory owners super-eager to exploit their labor. They did not leave much of a record behind. Despite this, Von Drehle does an admirable job of piecing together scraps of information to form a picture – necessarily incomplete – of women who crossed an ocean only to be incinerated next to their sewing machines, sometimes with only a garbled Ellis Island notation to mark their passing existence.
The setup also contains discussions about Tammany Hall and machine politics; the “Shirtwaist Kings” Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who owned the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory; and the reformers and activists who opposed them. There is an entire chapter devoted to a strike for better working conditions.
Von Drehle’s long leadup to the fire is not simply padding, but inextricably linked to the fire itself. Specifically, the conditions in the factory virtually assured that a large number of workers would be forced to give their lives for shirtwaists. The status of the workers virtually assured that their bosses thought no one would care.
***
The fire itself likely started in a trash bin, and exploded from there, feasting on the cotton that lay everywhere. Von Drehle’s account is effective, which is to say, it is terrifying and gut-wrenching, an awful combination – which the world observed again on September 11 – of high heat and high elevations.
Suffice to say, the interior of the Shirtwaist Factory had been designed to make it hard for workers to get out in a hurry. There were partitions that could only be exited one-at-a-time, and locked doors, and a single exterior fire escape that – due to flimsy design – collapsed, killing two dozen people.
There were ways out, but the flames blocked some, and crowds blocked others. As in all disaster narratives, there was a remorseless clock running down, and in those seconds of superheated air and toxic smoke and encroaching flames, frightened men and women had to make split-second decisions with the highest stakes they’d ever face. One person goes left and dies, another goes right and lives.
***
Dramatically speaking, it is tough to follow-up such a devastating sequence. Von Drehle manages, though, by shifting to the subsequent trial of Blanck and Harris, who were charged with manslaughter. This section is infuriating, but engrossing, especially the portrayal of famed attorney Max Steuer.
The law did not help the survivors, but they tried to help themselves by organizing a union. As is often the case when people are forced to jump out of burning buildings – and end up crumpled on the sidewalk, to be photographed – there was a public outcry, and this also led to some good, including a commission to investigate factory conditions. To Von Drehle, this supports Triangle’s subtitle as “The Fire That Changed America.” Unfortunately, memories are short, and we forget the reasons for things, even as we dismantle them.
***
Unlike Von Drehle, I’m not much of a “look-on-the-bright-side-of-disasters” kind of guy. I think Triangle works better as a memorial than as an argument that the Shirtwaist Factory Fire was a world-historical event. To that end, I greatly appreciated the efforts he made to create a list of the victims, which is included as an appendix.
There is power in a name. It forces us to stop and reflect on the brevity of life on earth, on the void of time, and on the reality of a person that has disappeared. It asks us to recall that these men and women were here, briefly, and deserve – at the least – a moment’s thought.
- David Von Drehle, Triangle: The Fire that Changed America
A tall building burns in New York City. Tendrils of flame snake from broken windows. Smoke pours into the sky. On the ground, a crowd forms, watching in helpless horror. The Fire Department arrives, desperate to help, but their ladders do not reach high enough.
And then, a figure appears at a window, looks around for a miracle, and jumps into the emptiness.
It is March 25, 1911.
By the time the fire is extinguished, 146 people – mostly female garment workers, most incredibly young – have died. Later, bodies will be placed into coffins on the sidewalk. Later still, news will filter out that the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, where the blaze occurred, had locked exits to prevent workers from stealing time or property.
In Triangle, David Von Drehle provides a complete account of this compelling and tragic story, which – for a time – held the dubious honor of being New York’s worst workplace disaster.
***
This is a fire book, to be sure, but it is a lot more than that. Von Drehle has much bigger things on his mind, and the actual conflagration does not begin until over a hundred pages have gone by. Instead, the first several chapters are devoted to context, context, context.
For example, Von Drehle expends a lot of ink trying to retrieve the lives of the workers from the expanse of an uncaring history. These were mostly Jewish or Italian immigrants who had arrived in waves chasing the elusive “American Dream.” What they discovered were cramped tenements, terrible living conditions, and factory owners super-eager to exploit their labor. They did not leave much of a record behind. Despite this, Von Drehle does an admirable job of piecing together scraps of information to form a picture – necessarily incomplete – of women who crossed an ocean only to be incinerated next to their sewing machines, sometimes with only a garbled Ellis Island notation to mark their passing existence.
The setup also contains discussions about Tammany Hall and machine politics; the “Shirtwaist Kings” Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who owned the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory; and the reformers and activists who opposed them. There is an entire chapter devoted to a strike for better working conditions.
Von Drehle’s long leadup to the fire is not simply padding, but inextricably linked to the fire itself. Specifically, the conditions in the factory virtually assured that a large number of workers would be forced to give their lives for shirtwaists. The status of the workers virtually assured that their bosses thought no one would care.
***
The fire itself likely started in a trash bin, and exploded from there, feasting on the cotton that lay everywhere. Von Drehle’s account is effective, which is to say, it is terrifying and gut-wrenching, an awful combination – which the world observed again on September 11 – of high heat and high elevations.
Suffice to say, the interior of the Shirtwaist Factory had been designed to make it hard for workers to get out in a hurry. There were partitions that could only be exited one-at-a-time, and locked doors, and a single exterior fire escape that – due to flimsy design – collapsed, killing two dozen people.
There were ways out, but the flames blocked some, and crowds blocked others. As in all disaster narratives, there was a remorseless clock running down, and in those seconds of superheated air and toxic smoke and encroaching flames, frightened men and women had to make split-second decisions with the highest stakes they’d ever face. One person goes left and dies, another goes right and lives.
***
Dramatically speaking, it is tough to follow-up such a devastating sequence. Von Drehle manages, though, by shifting to the subsequent trial of Blanck and Harris, who were charged with manslaughter. This section is infuriating, but engrossing, especially the portrayal of famed attorney Max Steuer.
The law did not help the survivors, but they tried to help themselves by organizing a union. As is often the case when people are forced to jump out of burning buildings – and end up crumpled on the sidewalk, to be photographed – there was a public outcry, and this also led to some good, including a commission to investigate factory conditions. To Von Drehle, this supports Triangle’s subtitle as “The Fire That Changed America.” Unfortunately, memories are short, and we forget the reasons for things, even as we dismantle them.
***
Unlike Von Drehle, I’m not much of a “look-on-the-bright-side-of-disasters” kind of guy. I think Triangle works better as a memorial than as an argument that the Shirtwaist Factory Fire was a world-historical event. To that end, I greatly appreciated the efforts he made to create a list of the victims, which is included as an appendix.
There is power in a name. It forces us to stop and reflect on the brevity of life on earth, on the void of time, and on the reality of a person that has disappeared. It asks us to recall that these men and women were here, briefly, and deserve – at the least – a moment’s thought.
January 19, 2016
Posted at Shelf Inflicted
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America is a moving and riveting account of the Triangle fire of March 25, 1911, the deadliest workplace disaster in New York City for 90 years. It destroyed the lives of 146 workers, the majority of them young immigrant women.
The author successfully brings to life the period before, during, and after the fire. He looks at the social and economic conditions of the time, working conditions in the garment industry, and the labor movement that women were gradually becoming a part of. Female garment workers were dismissed in large numbers for strikes and union activity. With the support of Clara Lemlich, a young immigrant from Russia, and upper-class allies, the plight of the predominantly female garment workers became more widely known and was taken more seriously. Unfortunately, safe working conditions, long hours, and workers’ compensation were issues that didn’t get addressed until years after the Triangle Waist Company fire.
Von Drehle includes details about the workers – where they came from, how they lived, how they worked, and how they died. He looks at court and public records, and provides a list of the victims who perished. He also talks about the politics of the time, the Socialist movement, the corrupt Tammany Hall, the trial of Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, owners of the factory, and the high-priced attorney who successfully acquitted them of manslaughter.
This is a fascinating look at life in the early 1900’s, a moving tribute to those who perished, and a grim reminder that workers’ rights must be protected, or they will continue to be eroded.
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America is a moving and riveting account of the Triangle fire of March 25, 1911, the deadliest workplace disaster in New York City for 90 years. It destroyed the lives of 146 workers, the majority of them young immigrant women.
The author successfully brings to life the period before, during, and after the fire. He looks at the social and economic conditions of the time, working conditions in the garment industry, and the labor movement that women were gradually becoming a part of. Female garment workers were dismissed in large numbers for strikes and union activity. With the support of Clara Lemlich, a young immigrant from Russia, and upper-class allies, the plight of the predominantly female garment workers became more widely known and was taken more seriously. Unfortunately, safe working conditions, long hours, and workers’ compensation were issues that didn’t get addressed until years after the Triangle Waist Company fire.
Von Drehle includes details about the workers – where they came from, how they lived, how they worked, and how they died. He looks at court and public records, and provides a list of the victims who perished. He also talks about the politics of the time, the Socialist movement, the corrupt Tammany Hall, the trial of Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, owners of the factory, and the high-priced attorney who successfully acquitted them of manslaughter.
This is a fascinating look at life in the early 1900’s, a moving tribute to those who perished, and a grim reminder that workers’ rights must be protected, or they will continue to be eroded.
March 31, 2024
"When [FDNY] Chief Edward Worth arrived on the scene at 4:47 p.m., two minutes after the alarm, he saw fire everywhere on the eighth floor . . . Worst of all, he saw that the ninth-floor windows along Washington Place were 'full of people.' Worth then ordered Engine Company 13 to train its hose on the cornice of the building and spray an inch-an-a-half stream of water back and forth." -- on page 148
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of Saturday 25 March 1911 was - until the terrorist attacks of 9/11 - the deadliest workplace disaster in terms of loss of life in New York City's history. Said business involved was part of the then-booming Big Apple garment industry, manufacturing shirtwaists - a now-obsolete term for blouses - by using cheap immigrant labor on the 8th and 9th floors (and the 10th floor was its clerical and management offices) of a ten-story building. A quickly-spreading fire broke out at the conclusion of the workday, leading to the demise of 146 employees, in which 62 of them jumped and/or fell to their deaths. Controversy quickly arose when it was found that one of the two stairwells was routinely kept locked during the shift - ostensibly, per the two owners, to prevent the theft of cloth material by workers - as well as the building having a crude exterior fire escape which did not fully reach to the ground level. Along with the expected historical angle, author von Drehle attempts a large sociological examination of the incident by initially going into laudable detail about the often Eastern European newcomers who toiled away in the building six days a week (as this was well before the mandated 40-hour / 5-day workweek), as well as the harsh political atmosphere and power brokers in charge of the city at the time. I felt the political aspect, although understandably germane to the narrative, was frequently sort of boring or dry. The book worked best when presenting some character sketches on the victims AND then detailing the tragedy, which eventually resulted in necessary workplace and/or safety code reforms.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of Saturday 25 March 1911 was - until the terrorist attacks of 9/11 - the deadliest workplace disaster in terms of loss of life in New York City's history. Said business involved was part of the then-booming Big Apple garment industry, manufacturing shirtwaists - a now-obsolete term for blouses - by using cheap immigrant labor on the 8th and 9th floors (and the 10th floor was its clerical and management offices) of a ten-story building. A quickly-spreading fire broke out at the conclusion of the workday, leading to the demise of 146 employees, in which 62 of them jumped and/or fell to their deaths. Controversy quickly arose when it was found that one of the two stairwells was routinely kept locked during the shift - ostensibly, per the two owners, to prevent the theft of cloth material by workers - as well as the building having a crude exterior fire escape which did not fully reach to the ground level. Along with the expected historical angle, author von Drehle attempts a large sociological examination of the incident by initially going into laudable detail about the often Eastern European newcomers who toiled away in the building six days a week (as this was well before the mandated 40-hour / 5-day workweek), as well as the harsh political atmosphere and power brokers in charge of the city at the time. I felt the political aspect, although understandably germane to the narrative, was frequently sort of boring or dry. The book worked best when presenting some character sketches on the victims AND then detailing the tragedy, which eventually resulted in necessary workplace and/or safety code reforms.
August 28, 2022
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America tells the amazing and tragic story of the fire that occurred at the Triangle Waistcoat Factory, in Greenwich Village, on March 25, 1911.
I had never come across this event previously, so I was reading this with fresh eyes completely in the dark about this tragedy.
In addition to the stories of the people involved, there is also an in-depth examination of the Labor movement, as well as immigration and politics of the time.
This book is intimate and startling, as well as fiercely moving. I loved it and learned so much! Highly recommend.
I had never come across this event previously, so I was reading this with fresh eyes completely in the dark about this tragedy.
In addition to the stories of the people involved, there is also an in-depth examination of the Labor movement, as well as immigration and politics of the time.
This book is intimate and startling, as well as fiercely moving. I loved it and learned so much! Highly recommend.
December 2, 2012
OK, do you really want the truth....... I feel I ought to like this book. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. BUT, but, but I was not all that engaged! Why?
There were too many people to get engaged with any one of them.
It read like a textbook, at least in parts.
This is a book about politics and labor unions, and this topic always annoys me. Improvements are made when it pays in the ballot box.
Every individual is thoroughly reviewed so that the reader completely understands why they make the choices they do. It is like, here comes a new person and then the book covers their complete history in the next several pages.
And I was annoyed by how at the trial what is most important, as always, is hiring a good lawyer. The wealthy can get away with anything, even murder. Take that literally. It annoyed me when it all came down to if the owners KNEW that the doors were locked. And then it happens again, several years later! Jeez.
But this IS what happened. Everything is covered very thoroughly. So I guess it is an excellent book, but only read it when you are in the right mood for facts and facts and more facts. And you better find politics fascinating. I get so mad I want to punch somebody.
I liked the book, but not a lot. It is worth reading. Three stars is a rating that better represents my personal views.
There were too many people to get engaged with any one of them.
It read like a textbook, at least in parts.
This is a book about politics and labor unions, and this topic always annoys me. Improvements are made when it pays in the ballot box.
Every individual is thoroughly reviewed so that the reader completely understands why they make the choices they do. It is like, here comes a new person and then the book covers their complete history in the next several pages.
And I was annoyed by how at the trial what is most important, as always, is hiring a good lawyer. The wealthy can get away with anything, even murder. Take that literally. It annoyed me when it all came down to if the owners KNEW that the doors were locked. And then it happens again, several years later! Jeez.
But this IS what happened. Everything is covered very thoroughly. So I guess it is an excellent book, but only read it when you are in the right mood for facts and facts and more facts. And you better find politics fascinating. I get so mad I want to punch somebody.
I liked the book, but not a lot. It is worth reading. Three stars is a rating that better represents my personal views.
March 26, 2016
1.5 stars - I didn't like it.
A most tedious read. I hate when authors take material that is most appropriate for a newspaper article, and then stretch it out to reach book length in size. This gives nonfiction books a bad name. I also find that most journalists turned authors tend to write overly detailed books that read like textbooks without a compelling or engaging narrative. This was no exception.
The author also included completely irrelevant random facts (to stretch out the length I suspect). For example, spending time discussing the eruption of Vesuvius, which resulted in a lava burial of the village, Bosco Trecase. That is not exactly what I expected to read about when I picked up this title. Also grew bored with the numerous depictions of crooked politics. You mean politicians on both sides were corrupt even two centuries ago? No one is surprised by this (if they are, God bless their little hearts).
The author tries to make the actual fire scenes melodramatic, but it is difficult to get attached to the poor victims that succumbed to the fire, when there is a quick succession of brief introduction of the victims one after another. This results in the people being just random names and not actual characters that will evoke any sort of emotion from the reader. You also feel like the author is using cheap tricks to play with your emotions, though the attempt is unsuccessful.
A final small qualm is that at the very beginning the author sets the atmosphere with "Gum-chewing boys and their giggling girlfriends waited alongside stunned or sobbing relatives of the dead. Is he trying to be ironic by prefacing a book about social change (including rights of women) with blatant sexism or is he truly just an idiot that thinks all young girls were giggly little things in the early 1900s?
-------------------------------------------
First Sentence: Manhattan's Charities Pier was known as Misery Lane because that was where the bodies were put whenever disaster struck.
A most tedious read. I hate when authors take material that is most appropriate for a newspaper article, and then stretch it out to reach book length in size. This gives nonfiction books a bad name. I also find that most journalists turned authors tend to write overly detailed books that read like textbooks without a compelling or engaging narrative. This was no exception.
The author also included completely irrelevant random facts (to stretch out the length I suspect). For example, spending time discussing the eruption of Vesuvius, which resulted in a lava burial of the village, Bosco Trecase. That is not exactly what I expected to read about when I picked up this title. Also grew bored with the numerous depictions of crooked politics. You mean politicians on both sides were corrupt even two centuries ago? No one is surprised by this (if they are, God bless their little hearts).
The author tries to make the actual fire scenes melodramatic, but it is difficult to get attached to the poor victims that succumbed to the fire, when there is a quick succession of brief introduction of the victims one after another. This results in the people being just random names and not actual characters that will evoke any sort of emotion from the reader. You also feel like the author is using cheap tricks to play with your emotions, though the attempt is unsuccessful.
A final small qualm is that at the very beginning the author sets the atmosphere with "Gum-chewing boys and their giggling girlfriends waited alongside stunned or sobbing relatives of the dead. Is he trying to be ironic by prefacing a book about social change (including rights of women) with blatant sexism or is he truly just an idiot that thinks all young girls were giggly little things in the early 1900s?
-------------------------------------------
First Sentence: Manhattan's Charities Pier was known as Misery Lane because that was where the bodies were put whenever disaster struck.
March 5, 2021
Triangle is a fascinating study of the infamous Triangle Waistshirt Factory in 1911. 140 people--mostly teenagers and people in the 20s--died as unsafe conditions combined with few exits for a fire that raged so out of control that the people died in less than 10 minutes either from the fire itself or jumping out the windows in a vain attempt to save their lives.
David von Drehle provides a detailed account of the rise of organized labor and unions as well as a compelling portrait of life on the lower East Side of Manhattan at the turn of the last century. He even gives detailed descriptions of the pogroms that led huge numbers of Jews to flee Russia and eastern Europe and come to the United States--usually stopping in NYC. There is also a briefer but well-executed description of the conditions in Italy that caused a mass emigration from that country. And the reasons for the mass exodus of each group is also tied to their political involvement (or lack thereof) in their new country.
The book is gripping and heartbreaking. My interest only flagged during the detailed account of the trial of the owners of the factory. But although trials can provide drama, this one does not stand up next to the vivid portraits of the victims' lives, of the city itself at that time, and the formation of the labor movement and its struggles.
A powerful book.
David von Drehle provides a detailed account of the rise of organized labor and unions as well as a compelling portrait of life on the lower East Side of Manhattan at the turn of the last century. He even gives detailed descriptions of the pogroms that led huge numbers of Jews to flee Russia and eastern Europe and come to the United States--usually stopping in NYC. There is also a briefer but well-executed description of the conditions in Italy that caused a mass emigration from that country. And the reasons for the mass exodus of each group is also tied to their political involvement (or lack thereof) in their new country.
The book is gripping and heartbreaking. My interest only flagged during the detailed account of the trial of the owners of the factory. But although trials can provide drama, this one does not stand up next to the vivid portraits of the victims' lives, of the city itself at that time, and the formation of the labor movement and its struggles.
A powerful book.
February 17, 2009
Triangle tells the story of the devastating 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York. Von Drehle (who writes for the Washington Post, my favorite newspaper), tells about the tragedy, but also puts the fire in its historical context - touching on issues ranging from the labor movement, immigration, anarchy, Tammany Hall, corrupt courts, and how FDR got his start in politics. It is well written and easy to follow. Surprisingly (at least to me, who had heard this fire referenced before, many times), his book contains the very first attempt to write down the names of the 146 people who died - or at least as well as is possible ninety years later. Evidentally, back then nobody cared to take such records.
I couldn't help, however, but to compare the book to Stewart O'Nan's The Circus Fire, which tells the story of the Hartford Circus fire in the mid-1940s. The books aren't really that similar - O'Nan just tells the story of the fire, without adding all the history, and Von Drehle is really more interested in using the fire to teach us a lesson about America at the turn of the last century. Unfortunately for Von Drehle, whose book is really quite good, O'Nan's book is awesome. O'Nan tale of the fire, and the people who survived it (or didn't) is so compelling, and the book is so moving, that even though the authors were doing different things, and even though I learned a lot from Von Drehle, the underlying sentiment I was left with was that maybe I should re-read The Circus Fire.
So, I guess what I am saying is that Triangle is pretty good, but if you are only going to read one non-fiction book about a tragic fire that claimed the lives of many Americans*, I would recommend The Circus Fire instead.
*And, you know, maybe you aren't going to read ANY book like that. Sounds damn depressing when I put it that way, no?
I couldn't help, however, but to compare the book to Stewart O'Nan's The Circus Fire, which tells the story of the Hartford Circus fire in the mid-1940s. The books aren't really that similar - O'Nan just tells the story of the fire, without adding all the history, and Von Drehle is really more interested in using the fire to teach us a lesson about America at the turn of the last century. Unfortunately for Von Drehle, whose book is really quite good, O'Nan's book is awesome. O'Nan tale of the fire, and the people who survived it (or didn't) is so compelling, and the book is so moving, that even though the authors were doing different things, and even though I learned a lot from Von Drehle, the underlying sentiment I was left with was that maybe I should re-read The Circus Fire.
So, I guess what I am saying is that Triangle is pretty good, but if you are only going to read one non-fiction book about a tragic fire that claimed the lives of many Americans*, I would recommend The Circus Fire instead.
*And, you know, maybe you aren't going to read ANY book like that. Sounds damn depressing when I put it that way, no?
April 3, 2009
A fascinating read. It’s not just the story of the fire, but also describes historical trends--NYC politics and the labor movement—that preceded and followed the fire. There is some great historical detail here and von Drehle is a wonderful writer. The fire and its immediate aftermath are heartbreaking and so is the list of the dead at the end of the book. Highly recommended.
June 29, 2011
146 people died in this fire. This 2003 book contains, in its appendix, a list of 140 victims, probably the most accurate list up to that time. Since then, a researcher has identified has identified the remaining six victims. Read about it here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/nyr...
There is also a fascinating Cornell University website about this fire.
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
Trivial error spotting: In Chapter 8, Henry Morgenthau Sr. is incorrectly characterized as “a future secretary [sic] of the Treasury.” Morgenthau Sr.'s son, Henry Morgenthau Jr., became Secretary of the Treasury under Franklin Roosevelt. Morgenthau Sr. was U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and a political heavyweight, but never Secretary of the Treasury. (Hey, when you're done here, why not read my excellent review of Morgenthau Sr.'s memoirs Ambassador Morgenthau's Story?)
It seems like many of the reviews here at Goodreads do not reflect the book's merit but the reader's personal feelings about labor unions, which figure prominently in the book. Rather than fight it, I'm going to pile right on.
There are people in the U.S. who believe (with some justification) that today's unions are often Mafia-addled societies of layabouts, dedicated the obstruction of innovation. These people cannot bring themselves to believe that unions, sometime, somewhere, could have been necessary, even worthwhile. Well, they were. Every time you knock off work at five o'clock on a Friday evening, happy in the knowledge that you are free until Monday morning, thank a union. That's right: grubby strangers from impoverished foreign lands got beat up and killed long ago so you can enjoy your 5:30 TGIF Mojito. Ashamed? No? Well, there's not much hope for you, then.
The proprietors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory successfully fought off unions the year before the fire, and then locked their employees into a sweatshop where many either burned or jumped to their deaths during the fire. It's not a surprise that the owners seem villainous in this book. They were villainous. Later, the owners beat a richly-deserved manslaughter rap with the help of an expensive lawyer, who manipulated uneducated non-native-English-speaking witnesses until they looked like liars. It's hard to read about it without feeling outraged at the injustice. That's why the union story will continue to reach across the ages and appeal to people who have sympathy for the suffering of others. Get used to it, O modern-day union bashers, because the need for justice is deeply embedded in human nature and it's not scheduled to go away any time soon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/nyr...
There is also a fascinating Cornell University website about this fire.
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
Trivial error spotting: In Chapter 8, Henry Morgenthau Sr. is incorrectly characterized as “a future secretary [sic] of the Treasury.” Morgenthau Sr.'s son, Henry Morgenthau Jr., became Secretary of the Treasury under Franklin Roosevelt. Morgenthau Sr. was U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and a political heavyweight, but never Secretary of the Treasury. (Hey, when you're done here, why not read my excellent review of Morgenthau Sr.'s memoirs Ambassador Morgenthau's Story?)
It seems like many of the reviews here at Goodreads do not reflect the book's merit but the reader's personal feelings about labor unions, which figure prominently in the book. Rather than fight it, I'm going to pile right on.
There are people in the U.S. who believe (with some justification) that today's unions are often Mafia-addled societies of layabouts, dedicated the obstruction of innovation. These people cannot bring themselves to believe that unions, sometime, somewhere, could have been necessary, even worthwhile. Well, they were. Every time you knock off work at five o'clock on a Friday evening, happy in the knowledge that you are free until Monday morning, thank a union. That's right: grubby strangers from impoverished foreign lands got beat up and killed long ago so you can enjoy your 5:30 TGIF Mojito. Ashamed? No? Well, there's not much hope for you, then.
The proprietors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory successfully fought off unions the year before the fire, and then locked their employees into a sweatshop where many either burned or jumped to their deaths during the fire. It's not a surprise that the owners seem villainous in this book. They were villainous. Later, the owners beat a richly-deserved manslaughter rap with the help of an expensive lawyer, who manipulated uneducated non-native-English-speaking witnesses until they looked like liars. It's hard to read about it without feeling outraged at the injustice. That's why the union story will continue to reach across the ages and appeal to people who have sympathy for the suffering of others. Get used to it, O modern-day union bashers, because the need for justice is deeply embedded in human nature and it's not scheduled to go away any time soon.
January 15, 2025
I'm pondering assigning this for a survey history class, as I think the author does a fantastic job in laying the background for many different elements that were coming together in the United States in the early twentieth century: the rapid urbanization of cities such as New York City, the squalor and unsanitary conditions of the Lower East Side that was crowded by immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia, the growth of labor unions, progressive reformers such as Francis Perkins and Al E. Smith, the power and efficiency of the political machines. This is just a bang up job, in my humble opinion.
Of the chapters on the fire itself, the fire that famously destroyed the Triangle Waist Company on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Ashe building, von Drehle brings to life the stories of the men, women and children who survived and bore witness to the catastrophe. The last chapters deal with an accounting of the trial of the two owners, both immigrants themselves, who were acquitted of charges after successful defense of a highly priced and aggressive lawyer.
Much of the groundwork for this book was already laid by Leon Stein, whose seminal 1964 work The Triangle Fire was the first real accounting of the fire itself, and Stein was able to track down and interview survivors of the disaster 50 years after it happened. Fast forward another 40 years, and we finally have von Drehle's work here to update and modernize the findings, including an accounting of the trial.
This is not an easy book to read, or to listen to. But it is very much worth the effort.
Of the chapters on the fire itself, the fire that famously destroyed the Triangle Waist Company on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Ashe building, von Drehle brings to life the stories of the men, women and children who survived and bore witness to the catastrophe. The last chapters deal with an accounting of the trial of the two owners, both immigrants themselves, who were acquitted of charges after successful defense of a highly priced and aggressive lawyer.
Much of the groundwork for this book was already laid by Leon Stein, whose seminal 1964 work The Triangle Fire was the first real accounting of the fire itself, and Stein was able to track down and interview survivors of the disaster 50 years after it happened. Fast forward another 40 years, and we finally have von Drehle's work here to update and modernize the findings, including an accounting of the trial.
This is not an easy book to read, or to listen to. But it is very much worth the effort.
July 14, 2011
This book covers the deadliest workplace tragedy (until the horror of 9/11) in US history.....the fire that consumed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in NYC and trapped employees who could have been saved if basic safety measures had been in place. On March 25, 1911 a spark in a waste receptacle exploded into an inferno, fed by combustible cloth and cotton remnants and raced through the top two floors of the Asch Building in a matter of minutes. Doors were locked and fire department ladders were too short to reach those trapped workers......and reminiscent of 9/11, people jumped to their deaths or were incinerated. One hundred and forty six people died, the majority being young immigrant women.
The author shows how the tragedy became the moving force behind labor reform, effected the rise of the unions and transformed politics in NYC, especially the hold of the Tammany Hall machine. He has done an amazing amount of research and his profiles of some of those who died and some who survived are heartbreaking. This is an almost forgotten event that changed not only the lives of those involved but shaped the future of worker safety. Highly recommended.
The author shows how the tragedy became the moving force behind labor reform, effected the rise of the unions and transformed politics in NYC, especially the hold of the Tammany Hall machine. He has done an amazing amount of research and his profiles of some of those who died and some who survived are heartbreaking. This is an almost forgotten event that changed not only the lives of those involved but shaped the future of worker safety. Highly recommended.
January 13, 2020
Beginning with a garment worker's strike and then moving onto the day the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory went up in flames, the book tells the story of immigrant labor in unsafe conditions. The fire department could not reach building floors housing the factory. The fire escapes were flawed. Locked doors impeded exit for many. Some jumped to their deaths in efforts to escape the flames. The book goes on to detail the reforms brought about by the human tragedy and the trials of the plant's owners. The narrative holds the reader's attention. An annotated list of casualties appears before the "blind end notes." I hate blind end notes. Please number them so we know they exist!
February 6, 2017
Terrible and tragic story about a long-forgotten factory fire that resulted in 146 people, mostly women and mainly immigrants, dying gruesome deaths. This happened during an era when workers had few rights, few safety precautions, and few means of recourse against their employers if they were treated poorly. Unions were just beginning to gain strength, but not nearly enough to obtain needed safety reforms. While pundits often decry our current lack of attention span, it seemed to be no better 106 years ago as this fire and the tragedy surrounding it was all-too-soon forgotten by everyone except the victims' relatives.
Von Drehle sets the story up nicely, focusing on several different people who ended up dying in the fire: why they immigrated to America, what types of problems they were leaving across the ocean, what types of problems confronted them in New York, their living and working conditions, and the different languages that they spoke. He then writes about the social movements that were afoot at the time: women's suffrage, labor movements, a push for a 54 work week, the sweatshop conditions that so many people labored in, and Tammany Hall - the vast patronage political machine that dominated New York politics during this era.
The recounting of the fire itself is horrific. There were basically two ways that the workers died: they either burned to death in the building, or they flung themselves out of the 9th floor windows and died when they hit the sidewalk below. About a dozen of them actually had tried to jump on top of the last elevator was it was going down, and they died on top of the elevator. Some of the people who did jump, were already burning. The fire department ladder only reached the sixth floor, three floors too short to be of any help. A few people tried to jump into the nets that the fire department had, but the two that landed in the nets died almost immediately, and then two other people came down at the same time and broke one of the nets.
The origin of the fire was never conclusively determined, but most likely it was due to someone throwing a cigarette butt into a bin of paper. The problem was the wholly inadequate workplace: no sprinkler system (those were already in existence, even in 1911), no adequate escape routes (two small freight elevators, two stairwells in the far corners of the rooms), a flimsy fire escape that was wobbly and led... nowhere, and two penny-pinching owners who kept one set of doors locked around closing time because they worried about employees stealing shirtwaists. Indeed, as much as anything else, the locked doors at one of the exits caused - it will never be known how many for certain - more deaths than there would have been had the door been unlocked. While the subsequent unfair trial did not bring any sense of justice for the victims' families, this tragedy eventually helped to lead to more workplace reforms (a young Frances Perkins became involved after the fire, she was became the first female cabinet secretary as Secretary of Labor for FDR).
Another sad chapter in the history of America, and one where greed triumphed over humanity.
Grade: A-
Von Drehle sets the story up nicely, focusing on several different people who ended up dying in the fire: why they immigrated to America, what types of problems they were leaving across the ocean, what types of problems confronted them in New York, their living and working conditions, and the different languages that they spoke. He then writes about the social movements that were afoot at the time: women's suffrage, labor movements, a push for a 54 work week, the sweatshop conditions that so many people labored in, and Tammany Hall - the vast patronage political machine that dominated New York politics during this era.
The recounting of the fire itself is horrific. There were basically two ways that the workers died: they either burned to death in the building, or they flung themselves out of the 9th floor windows and died when they hit the sidewalk below. About a dozen of them actually had tried to jump on top of the last elevator was it was going down, and they died on top of the elevator. Some of the people who did jump, were already burning. The fire department ladder only reached the sixth floor, three floors too short to be of any help. A few people tried to jump into the nets that the fire department had, but the two that landed in the nets died almost immediately, and then two other people came down at the same time and broke one of the nets.
The origin of the fire was never conclusively determined, but most likely it was due to someone throwing a cigarette butt into a bin of paper. The problem was the wholly inadequate workplace: no sprinkler system (those were already in existence, even in 1911), no adequate escape routes (two small freight elevators, two stairwells in the far corners of the rooms), a flimsy fire escape that was wobbly and led... nowhere, and two penny-pinching owners who kept one set of doors locked around closing time because they worried about employees stealing shirtwaists. Indeed, as much as anything else, the locked doors at one of the exits caused - it will never be known how many for certain - more deaths than there would have been had the door been unlocked. While the subsequent unfair trial did not bring any sense of justice for the victims' families, this tragedy eventually helped to lead to more workplace reforms (a young Frances Perkins became involved after the fire, she was became the first female cabinet secretary as Secretary of Labor for FDR).
Another sad chapter in the history of America, and one where greed triumphed over humanity.
Grade: A-
March 11, 2013
Unbeknownst to me International Women's Day 2013 would take place while I was reading this book. Last month I read "Hellhound on His Trail" during MLK day and this month this history of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire which ultimately ushered improved workplace conditions and workweek hours. I'm on a roll!!!
The changes were largely brought about by women like Frances Perkins who became the first woman ever to hold a cabinet post, Secretary of Labor, under FDR and by the Women's Trade Union League. But also by lesser knowns like Clara Lemlich who tenaciously worked to organize for unionization and other unbeknighted women who endured beatings, arrest, and even imprisonment at the hands of corrupt police, political administration, and court systems. Credit is also due to wealthy women such as Anne Morgan, daughter of J. Pierpont Morgan, who lent monetary support to pay for the release of poor, wrongly arrested women.
But even more honor must be given to the victims of the Triangle factory fire. Record keeping and identificaton of these victims had much to be desired, but through painstaking research by Von Drehle he has published a list of 140 deceased (mostly women) in this book.
I have some issues with the content of this book. The author chose to open the book rather dryly (for me) by outlining the lead-up to the fire - especially the set-up of the political and factory business climate of early 1900s' New York. Some of the immigrant information was good, but I felt descriptions of the lives and journeys of several immigrants were interesting, but not necessary to the extent that they were included. The same goes for his approach to introducing many of the players in the book, the men of Tammany Hall, judges, etc. and to multiple tellings of the victims/surivivors and their experiences during the brief minutes they had to escape the fire. Other readers, I am sure, will disagree with me on this point. And I emphasize, that it could just be me. Perhaps it ws just a little too "journalistic" for me.
Still, I recommend this book. It seemed that he covered the importance of the history in a thorough fashion. The trial of the owners, Harris and Blanck, and the maneuvering of their lawyer, Max Steuer was very will written. This could possibly be attributed to better sources. Many of the immigrants spoke only their native language well and were often poortly educated, therefore leaving little written testimony.
All in a all this was an important refresher for me on the importance of those ladies who fought so hard and gave so much for what we take for granted today.
The changes were largely brought about by women like Frances Perkins who became the first woman ever to hold a cabinet post, Secretary of Labor, under FDR and by the Women's Trade Union League. But also by lesser knowns like Clara Lemlich who tenaciously worked to organize for unionization and other unbeknighted women who endured beatings, arrest, and even imprisonment at the hands of corrupt police, political administration, and court systems. Credit is also due to wealthy women such as Anne Morgan, daughter of J. Pierpont Morgan, who lent monetary support to pay for the release of poor, wrongly arrested women.
But even more honor must be given to the victims of the Triangle factory fire. Record keeping and identificaton of these victims had much to be desired, but through painstaking research by Von Drehle he has published a list of 140 deceased (mostly women) in this book.
I have some issues with the content of this book. The author chose to open the book rather dryly (for me) by outlining the lead-up to the fire - especially the set-up of the political and factory business climate of early 1900s' New York. Some of the immigrant information was good, but I felt descriptions of the lives and journeys of several immigrants were interesting, but not necessary to the extent that they were included. The same goes for his approach to introducing many of the players in the book, the men of Tammany Hall, judges, etc. and to multiple tellings of the victims/surivivors and their experiences during the brief minutes they had to escape the fire. Other readers, I am sure, will disagree with me on this point. And I emphasize, that it could just be me. Perhaps it ws just a little too "journalistic" for me.
Still, I recommend this book. It seemed that he covered the importance of the history in a thorough fashion. The trial of the owners, Harris and Blanck, and the maneuvering of their lawyer, Max Steuer was very will written. This could possibly be attributed to better sources. Many of the immigrants spoke only their native language well and were often poortly educated, therefore leaving little written testimony.
All in a all this was an important refresher for me on the importance of those ladies who fought so hard and gave so much for what we take for granted today.
March 9, 2013
A well researched holistic account not only of the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911 in which 146 workers were killed, but also of what lead to the fire and what were it's long term historic repercussions. Von Drehle does a masterful job of creating the environment in New York City of not only the tenements and factories in which many of the workers lived and worked, but also the political environment - Tammany Hall, the Women's Trade Union League and the Consumer League which were all factors at the time of the fire both creating the situation which allowed the fire to happen, and also the organizational power to push to change things after the fire. One of the strengths of the book was also in the way von Drehle personalized many of the fire victims. They were not just a number (146) but also individuals, mostly young women who had others depending on the their work for a family's livelihood. Just wanted to mention that I finished reading this book on March 8th which is International Women's Work Day - certainly no more appropriate day possible for remembering this tragic and preventable event.
April 11, 2023
Blessed that I was born in 1999, and not 1899…
November 10, 2023
"From the summer of 1909 to the end of 1911, New York waist makers—young immigrants, mostly women—achieved something profound. They were a catalyst for the forces of change: the drive for women’s rights (and other civil rights), the rise of unions, and the use of activist government to address social problems."
If social history is something you enjoy reading then this one is a must, this book is much more than the story of a terrible factory fire, another terrible tragedy that could have been avoided, it is a window into the life of immigrants, the politics in the city of New York at that time, and the courageous women who fought against all odds to bring about a lot of the changes that we now take for granted. All of the people who believe worker unions are a bad thing for the working class, they really need to read this book!
If social history is something you enjoy reading then this one is a must, this book is much more than the story of a terrible factory fire, another terrible tragedy that could have been avoided, it is a window into the life of immigrants, the politics in the city of New York at that time, and the courageous women who fought against all odds to bring about a lot of the changes that we now take for granted. All of the people who believe worker unions are a bad thing for the working class, they really need to read this book!
July 28, 2015
I felt like I knew turn of the century New York going into this book - I've been studying it since I was a kid. In middle school we learned about the Tammany political machine and yellow journalism. In college I learned how the Triangle fire led to changes in the fire code, and that exit doors should always open out instead of in. A couple of years ago I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and gained a ground-level appreciation of the time.
It turns out that was only the barest of frameworks. Triangle shores up the weak bits, fills in the gaps, and extends the lessons of the fire into the New Deal and beyond. And it was a wonderful read to boot.
Big social and political movements such as garment worker strikes and pushes for political reform are masterfully illustrated using details from the lives of real people that were affected by them. The fire itself is a big part of the book, of course, and the harrowing minutes are covered in detail and from many different angles. I was scared the post-fire narrative would wane but the drama of the Triangle owners' trial was the most riveting part of the entire story.
Von Drehle's research is exhaustive and impressive, with notes and appendices taking up nearly a third of the pages. He also complied a complete list of victims, an impressive feat as no one had bothered to give it a try in the 90 years following the fire. (!) All in all it's a wonderful piece of non-fiction that made me vow never to forget March 25, 1911.
I finished this book not long after reading The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy and they make an interesting compare and contrast study. They are both about historical fires that killed roughly 150 people but differ in every other respect.
Part of it has to do with the subject matter. The circus fire was due to a single company not following the law, forgoing fireproofing and dipping the big top in paraffin and white gasoline to waterproof it instead. (Smart.) The Triangle factory, on the other hand, passed inspection - the problem was with a lack of regulations in the first place. So while Triangle covers large-scale impact decades down the line Circus barely moves from the scene of the crime.
The authors themselves compound the differences. Triangle is a non-fiction book by a non-fiction writer, lovingly and painstakingly filled with end notes and references. Circus is a non-fiction book by a fiction writer, crafted for story while remaining true to known facts. There may be more creative non-fiction stuff going on but it produces chapters that I was unable to put down midway.
When I finished The Circus Fire I thought, that was awful. I'm glad I wasn't there. When I finished Triangle I thought, that was awful... but a bunch of amazing people were able to parley it into a greater good.
Circus is about finding closure. Triangle is about making progress.
It turns out that was only the barest of frameworks. Triangle shores up the weak bits, fills in the gaps, and extends the lessons of the fire into the New Deal and beyond. And it was a wonderful read to boot.
Big social and political movements such as garment worker strikes and pushes for political reform are masterfully illustrated using details from the lives of real people that were affected by them. The fire itself is a big part of the book, of course, and the harrowing minutes are covered in detail and from many different angles. I was scared the post-fire narrative would wane but the drama of the Triangle owners' trial was the most riveting part of the entire story.
Von Drehle's research is exhaustive and impressive, with notes and appendices taking up nearly a third of the pages. He also complied a complete list of victims, an impressive feat as no one had bothered to give it a try in the 90 years following the fire. (!) All in all it's a wonderful piece of non-fiction that made me vow never to forget March 25, 1911.
I finished this book not long after reading The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy and they make an interesting compare and contrast study. They are both about historical fires that killed roughly 150 people but differ in every other respect.
Part of it has to do with the subject matter. The circus fire was due to a single company not following the law, forgoing fireproofing and dipping the big top in paraffin and white gasoline to waterproof it instead. (Smart.) The Triangle factory, on the other hand, passed inspection - the problem was with a lack of regulations in the first place. So while Triangle covers large-scale impact decades down the line Circus barely moves from the scene of the crime.
The authors themselves compound the differences. Triangle is a non-fiction book by a non-fiction writer, lovingly and painstakingly filled with end notes and references. Circus is a non-fiction book by a fiction writer, crafted for story while remaining true to known facts. There may be more creative non-fiction stuff going on but it produces chapters that I was unable to put down midway.
When I finished The Circus Fire I thought, that was awful. I'm glad I wasn't there. When I finished Triangle I thought, that was awful... but a bunch of amazing people were able to parley it into a greater good.
Circus is about finding closure. Triangle is about making progress.
June 14, 2016
What an incredibly sad book. I recently visited the 9/11 Museum in New York City and we were discussing how it must have been the worst decision in the world for those who were trapped in the towers to decide: Would I prefer to die by burning or jumping to my death? Which would happen faster? Which would be the least painful? And making that decision in a matter of minutes or even seconds. Many at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory faced the same decision. Some of the survivors even witnessed this decision swirling around in their co-workers' heads, watching them backing out of the windows, unable to bring themselves to jump, then succumbing to the flames. The author stood in the windows of the ninth floor of the Asch Building (now the Brown Building, owned by New York University) to understand what it must have felt like. Most of the victims were female, girls even, and many had fled the horrible pogroms in Russia for a better life here. How much tragedy is one person or family supposed to face? It just made me mad at the fickleness of fate. "There but for the grace of God go I": It could have been me, immigrating from Ireland, forgoing school in order to help support my family, and having no control over the conditions I worked in. But I was born in 1961 and it was my great-grandparents from Ireland who paved the way to Boston for me. My parents were well-off and able to send me and my sisters to college. This book reminded me to count my blessings. Overall, the book was extensively researched and solidly written. But there were a few things that brought the rating down for me. A great deal of history was covered, and therefore, a great number of characters were involved. I couldn't keep all these characters straight and when they appeared later in the book, I couldn't remember their part in history. This could have been solved very simply--with a list of them in the front of the book. Then, when I couldn't remember who a person was, I could consult this list. I was also disappointed that there were no photos or diagrams. I'm pretty sure that the physical book had photos but I read the Kindle edition and there were none. A diagram would have been helpful in understanding how the workplace was set up, how the fire raged through it, and where people escaped or died. Both the photos and diagram exist, but you have to click on the link the author supplies to Cornell University, who makes this information about the Triangle fire available to the public. That link is buried in "Notes on Sources." I was also hoping for more photos of the victims because that can make them seem more real. But, this was 1911 and most of the victims were very poor immigrants, so how many photos could there be? I mean, 105 years later, six of the victims have still NEVER been identified.
September 23, 2009
The great garment district fire of 1911 killed 146 people in Lower Manhattan. This was the greatest workplace loss of life for decades before and 90 years after, until 9/11/2001.
The average factory loft (today converted into a swanky condo) was 10 or 11 stories, meaning four floors beyond the reach of the highest hook and ladder. Fire escapes were grossly inadequate and no-smoking rules usually ignored. Scrap heaps beneath each work table provided a highly combustible matrix--and cotton is incredible friable. Fire equipment in the building consisted of a water bucket placed here and there and a few fire hoses that malfunctioned when needed.
The book is an unsparing account of what it was like to be an immigrant sweatshop worker, which was only a short step above slavery and so grim you might wish to perish in a fire.
My Sicilian grandmother Maria Sgalambro was one of those workers doing a piecemeal jobs on a foot-pumped cast-iron sewing machine that we later kept in our house like some kind of trophy. But she worked at home sewing ornamental collars on shirtwaists (blouses), not in a factory. My mother was born in a tenement on what is now the Silk Stocking district, the Upper East Side. Like many immigrant families, her's moved often to take advantage of a month's free rent offered by landlords during the Great Depression.
On another personal note, I just moved my office to the sixth floor of a building constructed in 1892. After reading this, I plan to install a coiled rope anchored on the balcony.
The writer (a Washington Post reporter) does a very good job with grim subjects: not just the grisly details of the fire (of 146 deaths, about half were burns and the other half jumped eight stories or fell off a failed fire escape); but Russian pograms and the Southern Italian droughts and volcanos (factors that drove Jews and Sicilians to emigrate); tenements, sweatshops, arson and the complicit role of insurance companies who discouraged fire safety; and the sorting out of charred and crushed bodies on the piers of Manhattan (a ghastly scene re-created on a larger scale after 9/11). These details are so unstinting that I had to skim a few sections.
I am just getting to the part about building code reform and the rise of union power.
This history is well-rooted in my New York Italian family and that of our Unionist Irish in-laws the Powers. This makes family lore frightening real. "Triangle" is also an excellent companion to Richard Price's novel "Lush Life," a tale of Lower East Side gentrification haunted by tenement ghosts. Thank you Malcolm Gladwell for recommending this in "Outliers."
The average factory loft (today converted into a swanky condo) was 10 or 11 stories, meaning four floors beyond the reach of the highest hook and ladder. Fire escapes were grossly inadequate and no-smoking rules usually ignored. Scrap heaps beneath each work table provided a highly combustible matrix--and cotton is incredible friable. Fire equipment in the building consisted of a water bucket placed here and there and a few fire hoses that malfunctioned when needed.
The book is an unsparing account of what it was like to be an immigrant sweatshop worker, which was only a short step above slavery and so grim you might wish to perish in a fire.
My Sicilian grandmother Maria Sgalambro was one of those workers doing a piecemeal jobs on a foot-pumped cast-iron sewing machine that we later kept in our house like some kind of trophy. But she worked at home sewing ornamental collars on shirtwaists (blouses), not in a factory. My mother was born in a tenement on what is now the Silk Stocking district, the Upper East Side. Like many immigrant families, her's moved often to take advantage of a month's free rent offered by landlords during the Great Depression.
On another personal note, I just moved my office to the sixth floor of a building constructed in 1892. After reading this, I plan to install a coiled rope anchored on the balcony.
The writer (a Washington Post reporter) does a very good job with grim subjects: not just the grisly details of the fire (of 146 deaths, about half were burns and the other half jumped eight stories or fell off a failed fire escape); but Russian pograms and the Southern Italian droughts and volcanos (factors that drove Jews and Sicilians to emigrate); tenements, sweatshops, arson and the complicit role of insurance companies who discouraged fire safety; and the sorting out of charred and crushed bodies on the piers of Manhattan (a ghastly scene re-created on a larger scale after 9/11). These details are so unstinting that I had to skim a few sections.
I am just getting to the part about building code reform and the rise of union power.
This history is well-rooted in my New York Italian family and that of our Unionist Irish in-laws the Powers. This makes family lore frightening real. "Triangle" is also an excellent companion to Richard Price's novel "Lush Life," a tale of Lower East Side gentrification haunted by tenement ghosts. Thank you Malcolm Gladwell for recommending this in "Outliers."
February 10, 2017
After reading Leon Stein's book, this is the next work over the Triangle Fire that should be read. Von Drehle takes the story Stein first told and goes deeper into the layers behind the event. Without bogging down readers, he discusses important figures like Charles Murphy and Frances Perkins. He even discusses Max Steuer who was the lawyer for Max Blanck and Issac Harris during the trial after the fire. The story of the judge and his probable opinions on the trial is also fascinating.
By far the best part of the work is how Drehle has weaved Tammany Hall into the story of New York factory work. Of course I knew a lot about Tammany before this, but I had no idea that the machine played such a significant role in the fire and progressive New York. This is a brilliant social history that anyone remotely interested in the topic should read.
By far the best part of the work is how Drehle has weaved Tammany Hall into the story of New York factory work. Of course I knew a lot about Tammany before this, but I had no idea that the machine played such a significant role in the fire and progressive New York. This is a brilliant social history that anyone remotely interested in the topic should read.
July 21, 2009
I first read Leon Stein's "The Triangle Fire," which discusses the Fire and its aftermath. I made an excellent choice in von Drehle's book as a followup because of its depth of research and its discussion of factors leading up to the fire, including the strike that preceded it. Excellent parallels are drawn between the 1911 Fire and the 2001 WTC disaster, right down to the workers being able to look out the windows at a beautiful clear day, and realizing that with the fire directly behind them, their only choice is to jump. Heartbreaking, enraging and very educational. Then, as now, business emerges unscathed while the workers pay the price - the Triangle owners went back to work, were completely exonerated of their negligence and were paid for their "trouble."
August 25, 2008
A gripping account of one of the worst tragedies in American history.
January 30, 2016
A blow-by-blow history of the terrible Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and how it changed US law and politics, made people's careers, changed the face of labor in this country and daily life in NYC.
February 26, 2023
My father came over one morning and handed me this book. "I want you to read this book," he said. "It involves Charlie Murphy of Tammany Hall. Charlie Murphy's sister married into our family."
In addition, my great-grandmother and her sisters worked in the bustling garment industry in NYC. Their specialty was the highly skilled lace work which adorned the shirtwaists. It is not clear whether or not my great-grandmother was a spectator of the fire, but my father said "she talked about it a lot." I imagine that she passed many of these young workers on the streets of NYC. She was probably a witness to the union strikes and the civil unrest regarding working conditions during her early 20's.
Recently, a small town in Ohio was affected by a train wreck. It makes me think about Frances Perkins and her far reaching advocacy for safety precautions. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a catalyst for change and later inspired The New Deal. Perkins was the first woman that served as a cabinet member. Her persistence and dedication to human rights issues is remarkable and inspirational.
Although it took me a long time to read this book, I feel a little bit smarter and better informed after reading it. I made sure to read each and every name of the deceased garment workers. I imagined their panicked search for a way out of the building. I imagined their heartbroken relatives trying to identify their loved ones by their jewelry, or braids or shoes. I imagined Frances Perkins as an eye witness to the fire and her resolve to make a change. I imagined my own great-grandmother standing with a crowd, horrified, appalled and heartbroken.
In addition, my great-grandmother and her sisters worked in the bustling garment industry in NYC. Their specialty was the highly skilled lace work which adorned the shirtwaists. It is not clear whether or not my great-grandmother was a spectator of the fire, but my father said "she talked about it a lot." I imagine that she passed many of these young workers on the streets of NYC. She was probably a witness to the union strikes and the civil unrest regarding working conditions during her early 20's.
Recently, a small town in Ohio was affected by a train wreck. It makes me think about Frances Perkins and her far reaching advocacy for safety precautions. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a catalyst for change and later inspired The New Deal. Perkins was the first woman that served as a cabinet member. Her persistence and dedication to human rights issues is remarkable and inspirational.
Although it took me a long time to read this book, I feel a little bit smarter and better informed after reading it. I made sure to read each and every name of the deceased garment workers. I imagined their panicked search for a way out of the building. I imagined their heartbroken relatives trying to identify their loved ones by their jewelry, or braids or shoes. I imagined Frances Perkins as an eye witness to the fire and her resolve to make a change. I imagined my own great-grandmother standing with a crowd, horrified, appalled and heartbroken.
November 17, 2025
Absolutely spectacular work of modern history! This is a must for anyone interested in the labor movement, women's rights, the immigrant experience, or how politics works in America. The tragic fire is described in scorching detail, and those passages alone would make this a classic. But there's so much more! The author gives fascinating background on a gallery of colorful characters, from political dealmakers like Al Smith and Big Tim Sullivan to high-society socialites and early feminist pioneers. There's not a boring chapter in this whole book and I finished it feeling that the author had barely scratched the surface. One personal note: as a life-long lover of Eugene O'Neill, and in particular The Iceman Cometh, I really appreciated the detailed history of Tammany Hall.
Harry Hope would have loved this book!
Harry Hope would have loved this book!
March 20, 2017
The Triangle Fire is a well-known historical event in frum circles for two reasons: 1) most of its victims were young Jewish women, and 2) the fire was on Shabbos. Employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factories were allowed the option of not working on Shabbos, but they would lose the day’s pay for it. Most chose to work, and 146 lost their lives for it. Their Jewish employers faced a lawsuit afterward. Though they won (they were defended by yet another Lower East Side Jew), their reputations were tarnished forever, and rightly so. This really is a tragedy all around. But if you have the stomach for it, I highly recommend the book.
As long as I’m creating numbered lists, I’d like to say that there are three things a history book needs in order to read like a novel: 1) characters, 2) dialogue, and 3) action. This book was strong on 1, fair on 2, and excellent on 3, particularly in the depiction of the fire. Major characters include labor organizer Clara Lemlich, factory owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, and two victims of the fire, Rosie Freedman and Michela Marciano. In a chapter called “The Golden Land,” the author traces the history of both young women and how they came to America. Rosie’s story followed a pattern very familiar to me, but I knew very little of the Italian immigration to America, so Michela’s was equally fascinating. By the time we get to the fire, we feel strongly for the two young women and the many coworkers who were just like them. The depiction of the fire itself is both harrowing and moving. Taken from the testimonies of survivors and witnesses, you get a real sense of the danger. Some people, like the elevator operators and the manager, behaved like heroes. Some kept their heads and made narrow escapes. And some were trapped by circumstances beyond their control.
One of the statements made twice in the book was that the Triangle Fire remained the worst workplace emergency in New York history for ninety years. The fire happened in 1911. The emergency that surpassed it was 9/11. It was certainly what I was thinking about when reading about trapped people jumping to their deaths from nine stories. In 9/11, they must have jumped from much higher.
Even though this is a tragic event, it is a well-written book telling an important story. One of the witnesses to the fire was Frances Perkins, whose biography I am currently reading. A social worker from an upper crust background, she became a labor activist after the fire and ultimately FDR’s Secretary of Labor. The deaths of those 146 workers was indeed tragic and preventable, and the acquittal of their bosses was a terrible miscarriage of justice, but the event did wake up the world to the need of safer factories, and improvements were made as a result. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that history ultimately leans toward justice, but the path to get there is long. Unfortunately, it's littered with a lot of death and injustice, too.
As long as I’m creating numbered lists, I’d like to say that there are three things a history book needs in order to read like a novel: 1) characters, 2) dialogue, and 3) action. This book was strong on 1, fair on 2, and excellent on 3, particularly in the depiction of the fire. Major characters include labor organizer Clara Lemlich, factory owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, and two victims of the fire, Rosie Freedman and Michela Marciano. In a chapter called “The Golden Land,” the author traces the history of both young women and how they came to America. Rosie’s story followed a pattern very familiar to me, but I knew very little of the Italian immigration to America, so Michela’s was equally fascinating. By the time we get to the fire, we feel strongly for the two young women and the many coworkers who were just like them. The depiction of the fire itself is both harrowing and moving. Taken from the testimonies of survivors and witnesses, you get a real sense of the danger. Some people, like the elevator operators and the manager, behaved like heroes. Some kept their heads and made narrow escapes. And some were trapped by circumstances beyond their control.
One of the statements made twice in the book was that the Triangle Fire remained the worst workplace emergency in New York history for ninety years. The fire happened in 1911. The emergency that surpassed it was 9/11. It was certainly what I was thinking about when reading about trapped people jumping to their deaths from nine stories. In 9/11, they must have jumped from much higher.
Even though this is a tragic event, it is a well-written book telling an important story. One of the witnesses to the fire was Frances Perkins, whose biography I am currently reading. A social worker from an upper crust background, she became a labor activist after the fire and ultimately FDR’s Secretary of Labor. The deaths of those 146 workers was indeed tragic and preventable, and the acquittal of their bosses was a terrible miscarriage of justice, but the event did wake up the world to the need of safer factories, and improvements were made as a result. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that history ultimately leans toward justice, but the path to get there is long. Unfortunately, it's littered with a lot of death and injustice, too.
October 26, 2018
Saying that Triangle: The Fire That Changed America is a story about a factory fire in 1911 New York City would be like calling Gone With The Wind a book about the Civil War. I'd be telling the truth, but I wouldn't be telling you what you need to know.
Von Drehle's work is not just the story of the fire, but also the story of dark, crowded sweatshops. It's the story of the women who ended up slaving away at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory after escaping Jew-hating rioters in Czarist Russia or the burning ash of an erupting Mt. Vesuvius. You'll meet Clara Lemlich, the tough International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union activist who held the picket line after taking a rib-cracking beating from strike breaking thugs.
You'll also meet the denizens of Tammany Hall such as Big Tim Sullivan and Charles Francis "Silent Charlie" Murphy. The Triangle Fire is the catalyst that prompted Murphy to transform Tammany into a political organization capable of drawing the votes of the ever-growing numbers of new immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe by rewarding their loyalty with reforms like factory safety and child labor laws.
This is also the "origin story" of two legendary FDR era figures - Frances Perkins and Alfred E. Smith. Smith served as vice chairman of the state commission appointed to investigate factory conditions after 146 workers died in the fire. Together with Perkins, Smith crusaded against dangerous and unhealthy workplace conditions and championed corrective legislation.
In short, the author successfully brings to life the period before, during, and after the fire. He includes details about the workers – where they came from, how they lived, how they worked, and how they died. He also talks about the politics of the time, the Socialist and Suffragette movements, the political corruption in NYC, the trial of Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, owners of the factory, and clever Max Steuer, the attorney who successfully acquitted them of manslaughter.
I would describe the book as fascinating, although I can't say it was totally riveting. Sometimes it became a slog and managed to read like a textbook, and if you're one who has a strong dislike of politics and labor unions you may have a tough time of it. But those of you who enjoy great historical detail and appreciate the interconnections of lives and events will love this book.
Von Drehle's work is not just the story of the fire, but also the story of dark, crowded sweatshops. It's the story of the women who ended up slaving away at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory after escaping Jew-hating rioters in Czarist Russia or the burning ash of an erupting Mt. Vesuvius. You'll meet Clara Lemlich, the tough International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union activist who held the picket line after taking a rib-cracking beating from strike breaking thugs.
You'll also meet the denizens of Tammany Hall such as Big Tim Sullivan and Charles Francis "Silent Charlie" Murphy. The Triangle Fire is the catalyst that prompted Murphy to transform Tammany into a political organization capable of drawing the votes of the ever-growing numbers of new immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe by rewarding their loyalty with reforms like factory safety and child labor laws.
This is also the "origin story" of two legendary FDR era figures - Frances Perkins and Alfred E. Smith. Smith served as vice chairman of the state commission appointed to investigate factory conditions after 146 workers died in the fire. Together with Perkins, Smith crusaded against dangerous and unhealthy workplace conditions and championed corrective legislation.
In short, the author successfully brings to life the period before, during, and after the fire. He includes details about the workers – where they came from, how they lived, how they worked, and how they died. He also talks about the politics of the time, the Socialist and Suffragette movements, the political corruption in NYC, the trial of Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, owners of the factory, and clever Max Steuer, the attorney who successfully acquitted them of manslaughter.
I would describe the book as fascinating, although I can't say it was totally riveting. Sometimes it became a slog and managed to read like a textbook, and if you're one who has a strong dislike of politics and labor unions you may have a tough time of it. But those of you who enjoy great historical detail and appreciate the interconnections of lives and events will love this book.
March 3, 2019
The book starts with an overview of Clare Lemlich who encouraged strikes in the garment industry of New York in 1910-1911. This was the time when Tammany Hall was at its strongest and immigrant women accepted abysmal pay, charges for material to perform the work (thread and needles), work violations and horrific conditions.
A chapter on some of the women who worked at the Triangle Waist Company as well as their history along with another trip into the history and supporters of the shirtwaist strike from November 1909 through February 1910. Triangle was one of the last holdouts but even as they won some concessions, the owners still made things difficult - every worker had to exit single file from all three floors so they could be examined for possible theft of fabric, lace, thread or other materials.
It was March 25, 1911 and quitting time - piles of half-finished work was next to uncollected completed shirtwaists. Lawn fabric and tissue paper that had been uncollected for nearly two months so it was estimated to be nearly a ton, likely more. Wooden tables and wicker baskets. And what was suspected to be a still-lit cigarette tossed in or too close to the fabric piles and flames raged through the debris. The cutters tried to use nearby water buckets for the purpose of extinguishing a fire but the air currents from the two opposite doors and elevator shafts contributed to the fire's explosive expansion.
Some women managed to escape via the doors and elevators, some fled to the roof, others tried to use the fire escape that collapsed beneath them. But too many were caught on the work floors, being driven toward the large windows and pressed against them until they broke away and many fell at 8-9 stories to the pavement.
From spark to embers, the fire lasted only 30 minutes and in the end, 146 people (mostly women) were dead - some only identified by their shoes while six were never identified. Burns, asphyxiation, multiple injuries and blunt trauma are all listed as causes of deaths. The owners were charged with manslaughter but were acquitted. In turn, the public was so aghast at the tragedy, numerous laws and regulations were passed regarding workplace safety.
Mr. von Drehle did an excellent job investigating the one of the deadliest industrial tragedies through news reports and other sources. It's an interesting read of a disaster that should be remembered especially due to it's impact on workplace safety regulations.
2019-033
A chapter on some of the women who worked at the Triangle Waist Company as well as their history along with another trip into the history and supporters of the shirtwaist strike from November 1909 through February 1910. Triangle was one of the last holdouts but even as they won some concessions, the owners still made things difficult - every worker had to exit single file from all three floors so they could be examined for possible theft of fabric, lace, thread or other materials.
It was March 25, 1911 and quitting time - piles of half-finished work was next to uncollected completed shirtwaists. Lawn fabric and tissue paper that had been uncollected for nearly two months so it was estimated to be nearly a ton, likely more. Wooden tables and wicker baskets. And what was suspected to be a still-lit cigarette tossed in or too close to the fabric piles and flames raged through the debris. The cutters tried to use nearby water buckets for the purpose of extinguishing a fire but the air currents from the two opposite doors and elevator shafts contributed to the fire's explosive expansion.
Some women managed to escape via the doors and elevators, some fled to the roof, others tried to use the fire escape that collapsed beneath them. But too many were caught on the work floors, being driven toward the large windows and pressed against them until they broke away and many fell at 8-9 stories to the pavement.
From spark to embers, the fire lasted only 30 minutes and in the end, 146 people (mostly women) were dead - some only identified by their shoes while six were never identified. Burns, asphyxiation, multiple injuries and blunt trauma are all listed as causes of deaths. The owners were charged with manslaughter but were acquitted. In turn, the public was so aghast at the tragedy, numerous laws and regulations were passed regarding workplace safety.
Mr. von Drehle did an excellent job investigating the one of the deadliest industrial tragedies through news reports and other sources. It's an interesting read of a disaster that should be remembered especially due to it's impact on workplace safety regulations.
2019-033
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