Triangle

by David Von Drehle | Nonfiction |
ISBN: 0871138743 Global Overview for this book
Registered by truthteller of Mobile, Alabama USA on 9/6/2003
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Bol.com
6 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by truthteller from Mobile, Alabama USA on Saturday, September 6, 2003
Just purchased, reading now!

Journal Entry 2 by truthteller from Mobile, Alabama USA on Monday, September 8, 2003
Fascinating and tragic...and given the Station Fire in RI this year, perhaps the lessons haven't yet been learned. Ends up being as much about the labor movement and women's suffrage and position in society as it is about the Triangle Fire and the aftermath. Sending onto fsr44 in Pawtucket, RI.

Journal Entry 3 by fsr44 from Pawtucket, Rhode Island USA on Sunday, September 21, 2003
Received as a Super-Bonus along with a trade. A random act of book crossing kindness. Not that random, though, since I wished for it and Truthteller (my sister) is a soft touch! :) Thanks.

Journal Entry 4 by fsr44 from Pawtucket, Rhode Island USA on Tuesday, September 30, 2003
I found myself wishing I had read Leon Stein's "The Triangle Fire" instead. Presumably due to the lack of available source material, this account wanders fairly far afield of the central topic. The union organizing and waist workers strike merited coverage, but some of the rest; Tammany Hall, pogroms etc. seemed like the author was trying to stretch the manuscript to book length.

Journal Entry 5 by fsr44 from Pawtucket, Rhode Island USA on Monday, October 6, 2003
Sending to Rainbowbabe in trade for "Wintering". Thanks!

Journal Entry 6 by rainbowbabe from West Chester, Pennsylvania USA on Thursday, October 16, 2003
Just got this in the mail today, and I'm looking forward to reading it! Thanks, fsr.

I remember discussing the Triangle Shirtwaist fire with my daughter when she was only five years old or so. We had just driven past a picket line, and she asked what it was all about. I told her about poor working conditions and unions - whatever I could remember - and I mentioned the tragedy of this fire. Now I can find out many more details. And maybe my daughter will want to read the book, too - she's 16 now!

Thanks again!

Journal Entry 7 by rainbowbabe from West Chester, Pennsylvania USA on Friday, October 31, 2003
I am writing this journal entry for my husband. This is the first bookcrossing book of mine that he has read! (And I have recieved many!) I noticed my husband was watching the author of this book being interviewed on TV one night, at the end of a news show. (MacNeil Lehrer? I don't remember.) I said, Oh, I have that book! And he was quite happy to hear that! He started reading it the next day.
He gave me a mini-review to write here. First of all, he thinks this book is very well written. He really enjoyed it - which means he learned a lot from it. He said one of the saddest parts was the fact that 9-11 happened as the writer was still working on Triangle - he almost didn't finish writing it. Too many horrible connections.
We both like the fact that the victims are named at the end of the book.
Another interesting coincidence: my son had a homework assignment from a weekly reader type magazine - and it was about the Triangle fire! He thought it was neat that he and his dad were reading about the same subject.
Thanks, fsr44! I am reading the book myself now.

Journal Entry 8 by rainbowbabe from West Chester, Pennsylvania USA on Monday, November 10, 2003
I learned quite a bit from this book and from that point of view it was wonderful to read it. It is also inherently quite a sad book, even as it is fascinating. I liked the way the author always gave the context for issues - for instance why the factory workers were almost all young women, and either Jewish or Italian. (I didn't know the reason behind the huge wave of Italian immigration to the states until I read this book - the biggest reason, according to the author, was ecological devastation in areas of Italy because of deforestation.)
I thought the book was highly readable, too.
Thanks again for passing it along, fsr!

I mailed it to Mojosmom today.

Journal Entry 9 by mojosmom from Chicago, Illinois USA on Thursday, November 13, 2003
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was one of those events that separates "before" from "after". It was of major importance in American labor history. It has always been in my consciousness, but I have never read about it in detail. So I am very interested in reading this. Thanks, rainbowbabe!

Journal Entry 10 by mojosmom from Chicago, Illinois USA on Tuesday, January 13, 2004
This is one of the best history books I've read in quite a while. To understand the importance of the Triangle Waist Company fire in labor history, it is also important to understand the context in which it occurred. I hadn't realized how the rise and fall of Tammany Hall was so intimately tied in with a business and political climate that would permit a situation in which such a deadly fire could occur, and also with the reformist aftermath, which was instrumental in leading to New Deal policies. The story of the trial, and the political maneuvering leading up to it, was fascinating.

Von Drehle is a fine writer. The most moving chapter must be the one he calls, "Three Minutes", referring to the fact that had the alarm been sounded three minutes sooner, many lives might have been saved. His descriptions of how many of the workers died had me in tears. While it is very easy to pile horror on horror, von Drehle shows you the people, both the survivors and the lost. There is one extraordinary section of this chapter in which, after telling of the people standing in the windows "cry[ing] 'fire!' because what else was there to say?", and the fire ladders not tall enough, and the watchers below "their tiney hands . . . up, as if a gesture could hold the doomed workers forever in the mouth of a furnace" he then describes the view from the windows. "[T]he cool, clear air beond the furnace; the gray-brown tracery of bare trees quilting Washington Square (faintly washed with the first whisper of new green) . . .the birds starting from nearby eaves and wheeling thorugh the sky; the elegant campanile of the church on the saquare, and the pleasing aesthetic echoes of it in the two orange brick loft buildign that faced the Asch Building . . .one of the least decorated in the neighhborhood, [it] featured miniature terra-cotta columns, fluted in the classical style, as dividers between the upper-floor windows. Workers were clinging to these decorations now."

In 1913, two years after the fire, the New York State legislature passed a series of fire safety laws, including requiring automatic sprinklers in high-rises, and unlocked doors. Last fall, 6 people died in a high-rise office building in Chicago. There were no automatic sprinklers, and the victims were trapped in a stairwell because the fire doors were locked.

[ A minor criticism: I really dislike unnumbered endnotes that also don't have a page number reference, but instead simply use a few words of the sentence to identify the note. ]

Journal Entry 11 by mojosmom at on Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Released on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 at Mailed to a fellow Bookcrosser in n/a, n/a Controlled Releases.

Mailed to MarciNYC

Journal Entry 12 by MarciNYC from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA on Tuesday, January 27, 2004
This was a pleasant surprise on a cold, snowy day. I had seen mojosmon talking about this in the forums and she sent me a PM or posted a message that if I wanted it, just PM her my mailing info. Well, I did and I had forgotten about it!

I am looking forward to reading it and then passing along to my husband for a read as well. Since this was a RABCK, it most likely will go forward as a RABCK as well.

Journal Entry 13 by MarciNYC from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA on Friday, December 17, 2004
I have attempted to read this on several different occassions and I just can't get into it! It's a shame as I'm quite interested in this event and was so looking forward to this book. Thank you mojosmom for sending my way - I'm sorry I couldn't 'enjoy' (if that's an acceptable word for such a tragic subject) this book. I plan to look for someone else who has it on his/her wishlist and pass it along that way.

Journal Entry 14 by mlbish from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA on Thursday, January 6, 2005
Thank you so much, Marci! You know, the magic of Bookcrossing is a wonderful thing. I put this on my wishlist on the recommendation of Mojosmom in BookTalk. And then I am surprised with the very copy that inspired the recommendation! It's a lovely small BC world!

This book looks fascinating and I'm looking forward to it. Will keep it moving once I'm finished.

Are you sure you want to delete this item? It cannot be undone.