Thursday, February 18, 2016

I have a book review on the book Triangle: The Fire that Changed America by David Von Drehle and I am stuck on what to write about. If anyone can provide the main idea, introduction, plot, and conclusion, that would be awesome.

Drehle's book looks at the Triangle fire from the workers' point of view, providing detailed background on the lives and working conditions of the immigrant women who perished unnecessarily in the blaze. He highlights how shockingly poor the working conditions were for these women who worked very long hours for starvation wages. He shows how the police often worked against immigrants. He highlights the struggles of the women to form a union to address unfair and unsafe working conditions and shows how easily women were fired for trying to form unions. His rich level of detail makes the life and world of these women come alive for the reader.
His thesis is that decent wages and working environments are not easily acquired. Many people worked and struggled—and even died—so that we today can have a better work life. Therefore, Drehle argues, we have to struggle to hang on to the rights we have or they may end up gone.
You might want to talk about why it took so long—more than two decades—for many of the labor reforms the workers wanted to come to fruition. You could also show the kind of facts and details Drehle uses that build pathos or sympathy for the workers. You might compare the plight of garment workers then and now.

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