David Von Drehle's Triangle: The Fire That Changed America

In 1978, David Von Drehle began a career in journalism at the young age of 17 years old. He started off as a sports writer for The Denver Post, where he was the youngest sports writer for the paper. After working with The Denver Post, Von Drehle moved on to The Miami Herald in 1985. During his time with the Miami Herald, he was awarded the Livingston Award, which recognizes excellence in young journalism. In 2006 Von Drehle became Editor-at-Large for, the renowned, Time Magazine. In Triangle: The Fire that Changed America, Von Drehle coalesces his critically acclaimed writing skills with knowledge of early 1900s New York to create a masterpiece depicting the struggles of immigrant women and a catastrophic fire that drastically changed labor and safety laws in America.
On a normal afternoon in late March of 1911, a fire broke out in Manhattan, New York that changed America. The fire began at closing time on the eighth floor of the 10-floor Asch Building, home of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. The building contained 500 workers, mostly young immigrant girls, who were mass producing shirts. Within minutes, the fire spread to the building's upper stories and devoured everything in
This book is not solely about the fire, but how the fire made a huge impact to change factory labor. Von Drehle depicts the awful working conditions factory workers, who were mostly women, endured to make a living. The book describes how these unjust conditions caused a factory worker strike that brought together workers and suffragettes to fight against the authority of their bosses and government laws. Through the catastrophic Triangle fire, Von Drehle portrays the coalition of labor reformers and feminists to transition the Tammany political party to take action against the unrealistic conditions of factory