Sourcebooks
504 Pages
Having grown up listening to newscast after newscast in the late 1970s and early 1980s about Love Canal, I get the gist of the idea that our government will often cater to big business over the interests of the people. To be fair, while this fact seemed a surprise during the whole Love Canal incident, it should come as no surprise that we have a long history with the same, dark underbelly. The case in this instance is the plight of the so-called “radium girls” of the 1920s and 1930s. They, too, were hung out to dry by the very people who were supposed to protect them. Barely a decade after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, you would have thought the powers that be would have learned something. However, ignoring history to prevent similar events from happening again is not our strong suit.
My initial interest in the plight of the radium girls was piqued when my daughter took part in her high school play, “Radium Girls” back in the fall of 2021. This troupe of high schoolers introduced me to some of the stories of the young women who were sometimes barely older than the students who were portraying them. I think that was what hit home for me about their stories. These young women were barely into adulthood, with their whole lives ahead of them, when negligence robbed them of their vitality and life.
Immediately, Kate Moore jumps into the lives of these young women. She emphasizes that these women are trying to better themselves and provide for their families and futures. While it was a time when things like chemical exposure and radiation exposure wasn’t fully understood, enough was known that the techniques used by the radium companies should have been banned outright. Instead, the mantra “for the good of the country” was drilled home and then backs were turned when the afflictions arose.
This book delves into the private lives of the girls who worked at these two companies, painting a picture of why they decided to work at these places. A lot of times, there was no choice. Money was tight and the pay was relatively good for these jobs. Moore shows how their work was literally brought home with them every day. Their clothes, their shoes, and their skin glowed in the dark when they were home, long after their shifts had ended. When their troubles began, events outside of work were given just as much attention by the author as the things that were happening at work.
The horrifying conditions of the bodies of these women will astound you. Bones eaten away. Pieces of jaw falling out of mouths. It is not pretty. Nor should it be. History isn’t always pretty. When it’s not, it should be shown in its full, gruesome entirety. The story should be told, both good and bad. Kate Moore shows us the ugly side of this chapter. At the same time, however, she shows the perseverance in the face of adversity shown by these women. Even while she was dying, while her body was betraying her very existence, Catherine Donahue continued to fight. It would have been easy for her to give up the struggle while her fragile body decayed. She fought on, for herself, and for all the others who were betrayed by their bosses in the name of progress.
Kate Moore writes a compelling case detailing the lives of the Radium Girls and their plight. She writes this book in an engaging style that keeps you turning pages in anger, and sometimes hope. You hope that the story will get better for some of these women. Any book that elicits an emotional response, should be considered well written. The Radium Girls definitely made me feel angry. I was angry that these things happened to innocent people trying to make better lives for themselves. I was angry that their concerns were derisively dismissed and ignored. I was angry that this story was relegated to a footnote until half a century had passed.
Reading The Radium Girls by Kate Moore was an eye-opening experience. This well written piece of history should be read by everyone. While it shows how far we’ve come, it shows us how far we still need to go. The tale of the Radium Girls will astound you. And maybe make you want to read more and understand that’s more work to be done.
Craig Bacon reads a lot of history, but rarely writes reviews of those books. This one needs more exposure so the story can be told…and so it doesn’t happen again.