The Triangle Fire A Brief History with Documents
by Argersinger, Jo AnnFormat: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2009-02-04
Publisher(s): Bedford/St. Martin's
Other versions by this Author
-
This Item Qualifies for Free Shipping!*
*Excludes marketplace orders.
-
We Buy This Book Back!
List Price: $22.39
Rent Book
Select for Price
New Book
We're Sorry
Sold Out
Used Book
We're Sorry
Sold Out
eBook
We're Sorry
Not Available
How Marketplace Works:
- This item is offered by an independent seller and not shipped from our warehouse
- Item details like edition and cover design may differ from our description; see seller's comments before ordering.
- Sellers much confirm and ship within two business days; otherwise, the order will be cancelled and refunded.
- Marketplace purchases cannot be returned to eCampus.com. Contact the seller directly for inquiries; if no response within two days, contact customer service.
- Additional shipping costs apply to Marketplace purchases. Review shipping costs at checkout.
Summary
In 1911, a fire at the Triangle Waist Company in New York City claimed the lives of 146 workers, mainly young immigrant women, who either leaped to their deaths or were trapped in the blaze by locked doors and inadequate fire escapes. The tragedy brought national attention to the unsafe working conditions, long hours, and low pay that had prompted a national garment workers' strike a year before. Jo Ann Argersinger's volume examines the context, trajectory, and impact of this Progressive Era event. An introduction explores the demands industrialization placed upon urban working women, their fight to unionize, and the Triangle fire's significance in the greater scope of labor reform. Documents from newspaper reports to the personal stories of labor agitators and fire survivors continue the story, giving voice to the "girl strikers," their enemies and upper-class allies in the effort to reform the garment industry, and the public outrage that followed the fire. Document headnotes, a chronology, questions for consideration, a selected bibliography, and an index enrich students' understanding of this historical moment.
Author Biography
Jo Ann E. Argersinger (Ph.D. George Washington University) is a professor of history at Southern Illinois University, where she teaches courses on World War II, the Cold War, and labor in the United States, specifically women and work. She is the author of Making the Amalgamated: Gender, Ethnicity, and Class in the Baltimore Clothing Industry (1999) and Toward a New Deal in Baltimore: People and Government in the Great Depression (1988) and coauthored Twentieth-Century America: A Social and Political History (2005) and The American Journey (1998, 2001, 2004). She is currently working on a study entitled "Citizenship and Contested Visions of Democracy, 1930-1950."
Table of Contents
Foreword Preface List of Illustrations PART ONE INTRODUCTION: THE FIRE THAT CHANGED AMERICA Fashioning a New Industry: "The Shirtwaist Kings" and the Factory System Working "Girls" in the Garment Industry Triangle and the "Uprising of Twenty Thousand" "Fire!": The Triangle Tragedy "The Day it Rained Children": Grief, Outrage, and Reform The Trial: 146 Dead but "Nobody Guilty" Epilogue: The "Fire that Lit the Nation" PART TWO THE DOCUMENTS The Triangle Waist Company in the Asch Building 1. Arthur E. McFarlane, Fire and the Skyscraper: The Problem of Protecting Workers in New York’s Tower Factories, September 1911 2. Regularity of Employment in the Women’s Ready-to-Wear Garment Industries, October 1915 3. Pearl Goodman and Elsa Ueland, The Shirtwaist Trade, December 1910 The Sewing Girls at Work and Play 4. Rose Cohen, Out of the Shadow 5. Sadie Frowne, The Story of a Sweatshop Girl, September 1902 6. Clara Lemlich, Life in the Shop The "Great Uprising" – The Shirtwaist Strike, 1909-1910 7. The New York Times, Arrest Strikers for Being Assaulted, November 1909 8. The Survey, Strike of the Lady Shirtwaist Makers, November 1909 9. Constance D. Leupp, The Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike, December 1909 10. The New York Times, Girl Strikers Tell the Rich their Woes, December 1909 11. Allan L. Benson, Women in a Labor War: How the Working girls of New York East Side Have Learned to Use Men’s Weapons in a Struggle for Better Conditions, April 1910 12. The New York Times, Church to the Aid of Girl Strikers, December 1909 13. The New York Times, Mrs. Belmont on Girl’s Bond, December 1909 14. The New York Times, Pickets from Prison are Guests of Honor, December 1909 15. Mary Brown Sumner, The Spirit of the Strikers, January 1910 16. William Mailly, The Working Girls’ Strike, December 1909 17. The Uprising of the Twenty Thousands (Dedicated to the Waistmakers of 1909), 1910 The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire - March 25, 1911 18. The New York World, The Triangle Fire, March 1911 19. Chicago Daily Tribune, New York Fire Kills 148, March 1911 20. The New York Times, Partners’ Account of the Disaster, March 1911 21. Rosey Safran, The Washington Place Fire, April 1911 Grief and Outrage 22. The New York Times, Sad All-Day March to Morgue Gates, March 1911 23. The New York Times, Doors Were Locked Say Rescued Girls, March 1911 24. The New York Times, Faint in a Frenzy over Tales of Fire, March 1911 25. The New York Times, Mass Meeting Calls for New Fire Laws, April 1911 26. The New York Times, 120,000 Pay Tribute to the Fire Victims, April 1911 27. Martha Bensley Bruere, The Triangle Fire Investigations and Reform 28. Report of the Red Cross, Emergency Relief after the Washington Place Fire: New York, March 25, 1911, 1912 29. Elizabeth Dutcher, Budgets of the Triangle Fire Victims, September 1912 30. The New York Times, Many Now Tell of Fire Traps, March 1911 31. State of New York, Preliminary Report of the Factory Investigating Commission, 1912, Volume III, 1912 32. Alfred A. Smith, Up to Now: An Autobiography, 1929 The Trial of the Triangle Owners 33. The Outlook, Indictments in the Asch Fire Case, April 1911 34. The New York Times, Enraged Women Mob Triangle Waist Men, 1937 35. Chicago Daily Tribune, What the Grave Covers, September 1913 36. The New York Times, Settle Triangle Fire Suits, March 1914 Appendixes A Chronology of Key Events in the History of the Triangle Fire (1901-2001) Questions for Consideration Selected Bibliography Relevant Websites Index
An electronic version of this book is available through VitalSource.
This book is viewable on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and most smartphones.
By purchasing, you will be able to view this book online, as well as download it, for the chosen number of days.
Digital License
You are licensing a digital product for a set duration. Durations are set forth in the product description, with "Lifetime" typically meaning five (5) years of online access and permanent download to a supported device. All licenses are non-transferable.
More details can be found here.
A downloadable version of this book is available through the eCampus Reader or compatible Adobe readers.
Applications are available on iOS, Android, PC, Mac, and Windows Mobile platforms.
Please view the compatibility matrix prior to purchase.