Preview

David Von Drehle's Triangle: The Fire That Changed America

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1324 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
David Von Drehle's Triangle: The Fire That Changed America
In 1978, David Von Drehle began a career in journalism at the young age of 17 years old. He started off as a sports writer for The Denver Post, where he was the youngest sports writer for the paper. After working with The Denver Post, Von Drehle moved on to The Miami Herald in 1985. During his time with the Miami Herald, he was awarded the Livingston Award, which recognizes excellence in young journalism. In 2006 Von Drehle became Editor-at-Large for, the renowned, Time Magazine. In Triangle: The Fire that Changed America, Von Drehle coalesces his critically acclaimed writing skills with knowledge of early 1900s New York to create a masterpiece depicting the struggles of immigrant women and a catastrophic fire that drastically changed labor and safety laws in America.
On a normal afternoon in late March of 1911, a fire broke out in Manhattan, New York that changed America. The fire began at closing time on the eighth floor of the 10-floor Asch Building, home of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. The building contained 500 workers, mostly young immigrant girls, who were mass producing shirts. Within minutes, the fire spread to the building's upper stories and devoured everything in
…show more content…
This book is not solely about the fire, but how the fire made a huge impact to change factory labor. Von Drehle depicts the awful working conditions factory workers, who were mostly women, endured to make a living. The book describes how these unjust conditions caused a factory worker strike that brought together workers and suffragettes to fight against the authority of their bosses and government laws. Through the catastrophic Triangle fire, Von Drehle portrays the coalition of labor reformers and feminists to transition the Tammany political party to take action against the unrealistic conditions of factory

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Essay On Chicago Fire

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Great Chicago Fire was one of the largest U.S. disasters of the 19th century, and destroyed much of the city’s businesses. This disaster and the rebuilding of the city made Chicago one of the most important American cities. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow is blamed as the most common cause of this fire. The fire started at about 9 P.M. on October 8th, 1871. The reconstruction of Chicago started a rapid increase in economic development and population growth.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before getting into the ideological specifics, it’s crucial to understand the context surrounding this source. Clara Lemlich was a member of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, and initiated the 1909 walkout of shirtwaist makers with her call for a strike. This strike was called in protest to the deplorable conditions described in the source, as well the abysmal precautions taken to prevent fires and industrial accidents. For instance, a report on fire traps, published less than 2 years later, argued that many New York City building lacked “even the most indispensable precautions necessary.” 9 days later, a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, claiming the lives of 146 victims - mostly young women. These victims…

    • 240 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    On March 25, 1911, 141 people were tragically killed in a completely preventable fire that consumed three floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Those killed were mainly young female immigrants, many of whom couldn’t speak English. Nothing as gruesome had been seen in New York since the 1890’s. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was a man-made disaster, that brought to light the horrible working conditions of the industrial era.…

    • 69 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Published in 2004 by Gover Atlantic Inc, David Von Drehle wrote Triangle: The Fire That Changed America that described that portentous day at the Triangle Shirtwaist Manufacturing plant on Walk 26, 1911. Von Drehle depicted not just the detestations of the caught laborers in the industrial facility additionally incorporated the poor condition of specialist's wellbeing and low wages. The turn of the twentieth century was set apart by development in correspondence, motorization, science and transportation that upheld American mechanical extension. Researchers and industrialists cooperated to create innovations tackling the force of power and growing ebb and flow machining capacities.(Learnnc.org) Von Drehle motivation of expounding on the Triangle…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The book selected for this analysis is entitled, “Triangle: The Fire that Changed America” by David von Drehle, which was published in Washington D.C. by Grove Press in 2004. Drehle starts by providing a succinct background of the living and working situation of people working at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. Drehle takes time to exposition to the readers the prevailing circumstances that led to an upsurge in the number of child-age men and women to enroll for work in poorly paying and dilapidated facilities. Furthermore, most of these individuals working at the Triangle Shirtwaist were immigrants that were arriving in large drones from different parts of the world, especially from the European region. Most of these…

    • 1543 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    On March 15th, 1911 a deadly fire started on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, just east of Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. Working at the Triangle Waist Factory were young children and young adults. People say the fire started due to someone dropping a lit cigarette in a pile of flammable shirt waists. When the fire began, they all scrambled to the nearest exit or fire escape. Sadly, only few managed to escape due to the weight the fire escape could handle. When the girls ran to the door they found it locked from the outside which prevented them from leaving because the girls would back up into the fire, getting burned. Others ran to the 8th or 9th floors but the fire traveled…

    • 201 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Taken place in New York City on March 25th, 2011 was one of the biggest tragedies killing 146 workers. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a sweatshop factory which caught on such a huge fire and which spread so quickly. The workers consisted of women, mainly immigrant women and teenaged girls who did not speak English. They were all crammed into rooms with sewing machines and worked for 12 hours each day. The 8th, 9th and 10th floor of the building caught on fire. Most of the deaths could’ve been prevented but the owners were so selfish and uncaring so the workers were trapped inside during the fire since the doors were locked. The owners were Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. They fled to the roof to escape during the fire. The fire escape of…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gunfire and Brickbats

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the article Gunfire and Brickbats: The Great Railway Strikes of 1877 Gerald G. Eggert analyzes the types of conditions that started the strikes of 1877, the understanding the workers that went on strike had of their situation, what the works expected to get out of the strike and what roles both the government and workers played in the strike. Eggert’s choice in analyzing the great railway strikes of 1877 was one of curiosity as much as education because the railway strikes are not as famous and well taught as others such as the homestead strike of the 1890’s. Eggert analyzed everything from the spark that started the initial strike to the spread of multiple strikes like wildfire across the rest of the country. This lack of popularity in the subject makes this article even more rare and educational because of its analyzation of the events that occurred.…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Iroquois Theatre Disaster

    • 2184 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Sauberman, J. (2009, August 9). 602 Lives – The Iroquois Theater Fire of 1903. Retrieved March 1, 2010 from http://journeytofirefighter.com/…

    • 2184 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    For many Americans, the late nineteenth century was a time of big business, marked by economic and social evolution. In the period between the 1880 and 1920, the American economy was growing at a rapid pace. Many European immigrants without industrial skills flooded into American factories and steel mills. These new comer's came in search of better economic opportunity, which paved the way for Heavy, low paying labor that became the job description of the era for many immigrants. One such story of immigrants of the time is Thomas Bell's Out of this Furnace. This not only a story of three generations of Slovaks and the challenges they faced but also about the Americanization and evolving of political consciousness of the immigrant workers of the American steel towns(415). Djuro Kracha is the first of his immediate family and of the three generations of immigrants to come to this country. Like many immigrants he hoped he was leaving behind the endless poverty and oppression which were the birthrights of a Slovak peasant(3). Starting out with little, Kracha first worked in the rail road industry and then followed a friend to Homestead. Dubik, because it was easier to get a job with a friend already working in the mill, landed him a job working in the blast furnaces. Work in the mills was hard and dangerous. The men worked from six to six, seven days a week. One week on day shifts and one week on night shifts, at the end of every shift the workers worked twenty-four hours. When the men worked the long shift they where exhausted, this made it fatally easy to be careless. Accidents were frequent and the employers did little or nothing to improve the conditions that the workers had to face. One example in the novel is when a blast furnace explodes and kills George's best friend Dubik; these kinds of accidents were typical of daily life in the mills during this period. Trapped by the constant work schedules and fear of losing…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 1830s and 1840, New England was getting a more modernized economy. This region of the country started to make things in factories rather than by hand. The machines made their work more efficient because it was faster and easier to produce goods than ever before. The workers in these factories were unmarried women between the ages of fifteen and thirty from the middle class. The fact that women were working in the factories caused conflict because it challenged a woman’s role in society. Prior to this time, women were supposed to work in home and make sure that the household ran smoothly. The new role of women was that they worked in the factory and were away from their family for several hours at a time. Most women went to work in the Lowell Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. Here, there was a conflict with women and their role in society. In this paper I will explain what the public thought about women working and what the working girls thought about working in the Lowell system.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Late on the evening of October 8th, 1871, at 137 DeKoven Street, Catherine O’Leary saw bursts of flames located in the family cow barn. Within about an hour from the initial bursts, blocks of poorly built shacks and houses were destroyed by the fire carried by wind. Following, within two-day time, the fire had destroyed businesses, factories, houses, homes and land. The fire continued blazing, completely obliterating over 70,000 buildings and approximately 73 miles of Chicago’s streets, killing over 300 people.2 The fire finally was extinguished on October 10th, when it rained.…

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fire of Chicago

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The summer of 1871 was very dry, leaving the ground parched and the wooden city vulnerable. On Sunday evening, October 8, 1871, just after nine o'clock, a fire broke out in the barn behind the home of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary at 13 DeKoven Street. How the fire started is still unknown today, but an O'Leary cow often gets the credit. The firefighters, exhausted from fighting a large fire the day before, were first sent to the wrong neighborhood. When they finally arrived at the O'Leary's, they found the fire raging out of control. The blaze quickly spread east and north. Wooden houses, commercial and industrial buildings, and private mansions were all consumed in the blaze. Historians agree that on Sunday evening, October 8, 1871, the Chicago Fire did indeed start in the barn of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick and Catherine O'Leary. While the blaze ironically spared the O'Leary home, located on the city's West Side at 137 De Koven Street, much of the rest of Chicago was not so fortunate. Before the fire died out in the early morning of Tuesday, October 10, it had cut a swath through Chicago approximately three and one-third square miles in size. Property valued at $192,000,000 was destroyed, 100,000 people were left homeless, and 300 people lost their lives.…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Haymarket riot made a big impact all around the world. It drove people to distrust the labor Unions, but also violated the rights of men who were turned into martyrs by the government. This event caused much controversy, and is still argued about passionately to this day. During that time, there was also controversy over the labor unions. Many argued that they were “unAmerican” and unnecessary although the unions did ultimately reach their goals and are still helpful today.…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Bush Boake Allen

    • 5512 Words
    • 23 Pages

    Sales leaflet / article regarding Holmes Marine Life protection Association (owned by A and W)…

    • 5512 Words
    • 23 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays