nytimes.com
Last year, Albert Marrin published Flesh and Blood So Cheap, a history of the Triangle Factory Fire that killed over one hundred people in New York in 1911. Most of the dead were young Italian and Russian-Jewish seamstresses who had recently immigrated to the U.S. In his conclusion, Marrin appends a warning. He urges readers to attend to the unjust and dangerous working conditions that persist in other countries that manufacture clothes for U.S. consumers. Reporting on a 2010 factory fire near Dhaka, Bangladesh that killed twenty-one workers, Marrin concludes
If the Bangladeshi experience teaches anything, it is that short memories and greed are a deadly mixture. When things are going well, we are likely to forget the past. Short memories are dangerous, because they allow greed to take control. The result is disaster. Thus, eternal vigilance truly is the price of liberty and safety. (163)
Tragically, the world has not been vigilant. This week, unsafe working conditions and unscrupulous management allowed a fire to kill over one hundred women making clothes for U.S. consumers in Dhaka, Bangladesh just two years after the 2010 fire.
Click on any of these links to read more about the story. This New York Times piece reports the details of the fire, while the Huffington Post and Wall Street Journal articles analyze the significance of this fire for U.S. corporations who outsource their labor.
Can teaching Marrin’s history help us prevent such tragedies in the future?
Maritza Arteaga
December 1, 2012 at 10:34 am
I think teaching Marrin’s book will definitely bring conscious to our youth. It is often said that our youth are our future, so why not implement them with the supplies necessary to make them care about what goes around the world and make them aware that they can make change, just like the historical figures in “Flesh and Blood so Cheap” did.
beyondthepalebooks
December 1, 2012 at 11:15 am
I want to believe that teaching a book like this could inspire students to feel empowered–able to enact change. However, I agree with Marrin that we, as a society, have short memories. I just keep teaching the books and hoping students will remember . . .
Karina Morales
December 4, 2012 at 10:25 am
I think it is absolutely necessary to teach young readers about historical tragedies like the triangle fire in order to make a difference in current and future situations that may be dangerous for factory workers. It is very unfortionate that in this day and age there are still people dying because of unsafe work conditions but the only way to change things is through education and awareness. If bad working conditions are not exposed and challenged, changes will never be made. Albert Marrin does an excellent job educating young readers about the dangers of unsafe working conditions and I think young readers would gain a lot from reading his book.
beyondthepalebooks
December 5, 2012 at 8:49 am
Thanks for sharing your view, Karina. Perhaps you and Maritza are right–it’s Marrin’s biographies of the brave people who fought to change working conditions in U.S. factories that will stick with and inspire young readers.