Triangle The Fire That Changed America Summary

Drehle, D. V. (2003). Triangle: The Fire That Changed America (1st ed.) New York, NY. Grove Press
David Von Drehle’s Triangle: The Fire That Changed America is a historical monograph discusses the rise of labor reforms along with the Progressive Movement throughout the state of New York during the early 1900’s, and pushes forward the argument that the fire which decimated the Triangle Waist Company was vital to the entrance of laws advocated by unions that protect the safety of workers. Drehle himself is a journalist, a former editor of Time Magazine, and a frequent visitor of American History in most of his works.
The fire at Triangle was a devastating tragedy, but its sheer scale caused incredibly welcoming effects on the common workplace. Before the fire, labor unions that belonged to the progressive movement were only able to secure “a pay raise, [and] a fifty-two hour work week” for a pitifully limited number of workers, as the

The sources that Drehle utilizes manage to fit well into his monograph, organically fitting them into his writing without abrupt information dumps. One of the books Drehle quotes often in Triangle: The Fire That Changed America is The Triangle Fire, a similar monograph about the same disaster discussing how the fire was a rude awakening to many for the painfully inadequate work conditions in New York, but it does not touch upon the specific reforms which had been “a turning point in New York political history” (Drehle, 2003, 218). Albert Marrin’s Flesh and Blood So Cheap; The Triangle Fire And Its Legacy is yet another monograph about the Triangle fire, which is strikingly similar to Drehle’s own, discussing the lasting effects of the fire and the reforms which occurred