The Triangle Fire

"Leon Stein's gripping narrative of the Triangle tragedy is one of the classics of American history. As the grandson of a onetime Triangle seamstress, I salute the reissue of a book that anyone who cares about labor, past or present, should read."―Michael Kazin, Georgetown University, author of The Populist Persuasion: An American History and other books

Praise for the 1962 edition―
"Stein recreates the tragic events of the fire in all their dramatic intensity. His moving account is a work of dedication."―New York Times Book Review

"With commendable restraint, Stein uses newspapers, official documents, and the evidence of survivors to unfold a story made more harrowing by the unemotional simplicity of its narration."―Library Journal

"Stein... suggests that the fire alerted the public to shocking working conditions all over the city and helped the unions organize the clothing industry, but his good taste keeps him from selling the reader any silver lining. A by-product of the careful research that has gone into this excellent narrative is an interesting sketch of the hard lives and times of working girls in the days when the business of America was business."―New Yorker

March 25, 2011, marks the centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in which 146 garment workers lost their lives. A work of history relevant for all those who continue the fight for workers' rights and safety, this edition of Leon Stein's classic account of the fire features a substantial new foreword by the labor journalist Michael Hirsch, as well as a new appendix listing all of the victims' names, for the first time, along with addresses at the time of their death and locations of their final resting places.

The late Leon Stein was the editor of Justice, the official publication of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. He was also the editor of Out of the Sweatshop: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy. Michael Hirsch is a labor journalist and coproducer of the 2011 HBO documentary Triangle: Remembering the Fire. William Greider, national affairs correspondent for The Nation magazine, is author most recently of Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of Our Country.