The Triangle Fire

Leon Stein had the advantage of speaking with some of the survivors, and he is an excellent conduit through which they tell their story. The strike is covered briefly, but Stein concentrates on the fire and its aftermath, including the gruesome task of identifying the bodies and the mournful series of funerals, culminating in the procession for the unknowns. Read this volume in tandem with David von Drehle's "Triangle: The Fire that Changed America," as they complement each other perfectly.

Leon Stein is a marvelous story-teller, who in THE TRIANGLE FIRE, shows incredible restraint. Given his pro-union, pro-labor background, you can almost hear him checking himself--holding back from screaming at an anti-labor era in America that caused so many needless deaths and injuries. Published on, roughly, the 50th anniversary of the disaster, Stein presents a story of young immigrant girls standing up against sweatshop atrocities, only to find themselves, in the case of the girls laboring at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, pushed further down. The account of the disaster is appropriately harrowing. William Greider's introduction, although occassionally heavy-handed, makes the reader wonder how much things have improved now that we are almost marking the 100th anniversary of that awful day. Also, it would be worthwhile to read this in conjunction with David von Driehle's superb "Triangle: The Fire that Changed America". Rocco Dormarunno, author of "The Five Points".

Once I opened this book, I was hooked. The author's writing style grips you by the throat and drags you along with the survivors and the victims of this horrific yet history-making catastrophe! Every time you go into an office building and see a glowing exit sign, idly note that the doors have crash bars and open into the stairwell, or brush up against a fire extinguisher or hose cabinet, you'll remember why they're now mandated to be there. This disaster should never have happened, and this book explains why and how steps were taken to keep it from happening again. But it is also a book about people--those who made it out alive and those who didn't, and the little choices that made the difference.

I used this book to write a 33 page paper concerning the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. It is not only fascinating, but the most thorough work on this tragic subject I could find. He is a fantastic author and documentarian.