Book Club: The Triangle Fire by Leon Stein

On May 6th, the OHA Book Club will discuss The Triangle Fire by Leon Stein

More about the book: March 25, 2011, marks the centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in which 146 garment workers lost their lives. A work of history relevant for all those who continue the fight for workers’ rights and safety, this edition of Leon Stein’s classic account of the fire features a substantial new foreword by the labor journalist Michael Hirsch, as well as a new appendix listing all of the victims’ names, for the first time, along with addresses at the time of their death and locations of their final resting places.

“Stein recreates the tragic events of the fire in all their dramatic intensity. His moving account is a work of dedication.”―New York Times Book Review

“Stein suggests that the fire alerted the public to shocking working conditions all over the city and helped the unions organize the clothing industry, but his good taste keeps him from selling the reader any silver lining. A by-product of the careful research that has gone into this excellent narrative is an interesting sketch of the hard lives and times of working girls in the days when the business of America was business.”―The New Yorker

“With commendable restraint, Stein uses newspapers, official documents, and the evidence of survivors to unfold a story made more harrowing by the unemotional simplicity of its narration.”―Library Journal

“Leon Stein’s gripping narrative of the Triangle tragedy is one of the classics of American history. As the grandson of a onetime Triangle seamstress, I salute the reissue of a book that anyone who cares about labor, past or present, should read.”―Michael Kazin, Georgetown University