Michelle M. (jade19721) reviewed on 4/24/2013 + 115 more book reviews

When I first saw this book I thought it dealt with strictly the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that occured on March 25, 1911 in New York City in the Asch Building on Washington Street. This book was so much more. Long before the fire the workers had long been fed up with the conditions in which they worked. Most of the women who worked in the fire were poor immigrant women. Most were in their teens and spoke very little English. They worked in unbearable conditions for some pretty unsavory characters who took delight in taking advantage of them. When they decided to strike they were beaten, pushed around, and bullied by the police and people who had been hired to knock them around.

Uprising is a story told through the eyes of 3 young women named Bella, Yetta, and Jane. Bella was an italian immigrant who came to America to try and raise money for her family back home. Yetta was a Jewish Russian immigrant, and Jane, who came from an affluent background, but ran away from it because she considered her fathers money blood money. Bella and Yetta were employees at the factory and Jane was a governess for the owner of the factorys children. The story chronicles the strike and the fire at the factory.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire is one of the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women aged sixteen to twenty-three. The youngest girl to lose her life was a 14 year old.

For more information on the fire, the website at Cornell can give you the full story

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/

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