The heart of Von Drehle’s book is its detailed, nuanced, mesmerizing description of the fire.

“A strong piece of writing whose edge seems to have been supplied by a haunting sense of Sept. Von Drehle has written a piece of popular history that reads like a novel and is rich in characterization and thoughtful analysis.” –Annelise Orleck, The Chicago Tribune Animated by vigorous, descriptive prose, Triangle carries the reader deep into a portrait of early 20 th Century New York that is, in turns, evocative and kaleidoscopic, then dramatically narrative. “There are many reasons to praise Von Drehle’s accomplishment. Triangle is social history at its best, a magnificent portrayal not only of the catastrophe but also of the time and the turbulent city in which it took place.” –Kevin Baker, The New York Times Book Review has written what is sure to become the definitive account of the fire. Triangle is an immensely moving account of the hardships of New York City life in the early part of the twentieth century, and how this event transformed politics and gave rise to urban liberalism. Most powerfully, he puts a human face on the men and women who died on March 25. Morgan and reformers Frances Perkins and Al Smith.

Murphy, the shrewd kingmaker of Tammany Hall blue-blooded activists like Anne Morgan, daughter of J. Von Drehle shows how popular revulsion at the Triangle catastrophe led to an unprecedented alliance between idealistic labor reformers and the supremely pragmatic politicians of the Tammany machine.ĭavid Von Drehle orchestrates these events into a drama rich in suspense and filled with memorable characters: the tight-fisted ‘shirtwaist kings’ Max Blanck and Isaac Harris Charles F. It portrays the Dickensian work conditions that led to a massive waist-worker’s strike in which an unlikely coalition of socialists, socialites, and suffragettes took on bosses, police, and magistrates. It follows the waves of Jewish and Italian immigration that inundated New York in the early years of the century, filling its slums and supplying its garment factories with cheap, mostly female labor. This harrowing yet compulsively readable book is both a chronicle of the Triangle shirtwaist fire and a vibrant portrait of an entire age. It was the worst workplace disaster in New York City history. The final toll was 146 people–123 of them women. People on the street watched in horror as desperate workers jumped to their deaths. Firemen who arrived at the scene were unable to rescue those trapped inside: their ladders simply weren’t tall enough. Within minutes it spread to consume the building’s upper three stories. On March 25, 1911, as workers were getting ready to leave for the day, a fire broke out in the Triangle shirtwaist factory in New York’s Greenwich Village. Triangle is a poignantly detailed account of the 1911 disaster that horrified the country and changed the course of twentieth-century politics and labor relations

Triangle by David von Drehle