Summary Of Triangle The Fire That Changed America

David Von Drehle is an American author and journalist who received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver. He then earned and graduated from Oxford University with a master’s degree in literature and as a Marshall Scholar. He wrote “Triangle: The Fire That Changed America” which is a book about where the people of Manhattan, suffered the tragedy of the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire which took place in the Spring of 1911. This book is “One more attempt to open up the horror of the Triangle fire, to gaze intently and unflinchingly at it, and to settle on the facts and their meaning,” (Drehle, 2003, p. 5) The aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire was that 146 people had been burned and killed by the fire. Also this tragedy brought a lot of attention to the conditions of the other factories, which led to the development of new laws to help regulate and protect the people working in these factories. This fire was an important factor in the progressive movement because this, “strike ended in a pioneering settlement… proving conditions and resolving grievances,”

187). Also the main cause for the fire being this deadly was “neither panic nor inadequate means of escape,” (Drehle, 2003, p. 187) It was the heat that rushed into the people before the flames. This deadly fire led to many reforms occurring such as “Better fire escapes, enclosed fireproof stairs, automatic sprinklers and fire drills,” (Drehle, 2003, p. 185). The author, Drehle proved his argument that this book explains the horrors of the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire by saying that “Fire… Get on the roof,” (Drehle, 2003, p.130). This quote how bad the fire was that the women in the fire had to go to the roof to get free from the fire. This is how the fire was a crucial moment in American