The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women
Kate Moore, 2016 (2017, U.S.A.)
Source Books
4496 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781492649359
Summary
The incredible true story of the women who fought America's Undark danger
The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.
Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.
But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come.
Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Kate Moore is a the author of The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women (UK title, The Radium Girls: They Paid with Their Lives. Their Final Fight Was for Justice).
Prior to becoming a writer, Moore worked for 12 years in publishing, as an editorial director for Penguin Random House. In 2014 she turned to freelance—ghostwriting memoir, biography, and history.
It was in 2015, while directing a London version of the play, These Shining Lives, the story of women in Ottowa, Canada, who worked with radium, that Moore realized no account of the tragedy existed from the perspective of the women. That led her to conduct her own research and eventually write The Radium Girls. (Adapted from the publisher and Goodreads.)
Book Reviews
[A] fascinating social history—one that significantly reflects on the class and gender of those involved [is] Catherine Cookson meets Mad Men.…The importance of the brave and blighted dial-painters cannot be overstated.
Sunday Times (UK)
Kate Moore…writes with a sense of drama that carries one through the serpentine twists and turns of this tragic but ultimately uplifting story. She sees the trees for the wood: always at the center of her narrative are the individual dial painters, so the list of their names at the start of the book becomes a register of familiar, endearing ghosts
Spectator (UK)
In this thrilling and carefully crafted book, Kate Moore tells the shocking story of how early 20th-century corporate and legal America set about silencing dozens of working-class women who had been systematically poisoned by radiation.… Moore [writes] so lyrically (Five stars).
Mail on Sunday (UK)
Radium Girls spares us nothing of their suffering; though at times the foreshadowing reads more like a true-crime story, Moore is intent on making the reader viscerally understand the pain in which these young women were living, and through which they had to fight in order to get their problems recognized.…The story of real women at the mercy of businesses who see them only as a potential risk to the bottom line is haunting precisely because of how little has changed; the glowing ghosts of the radium girls haunt us still.
NPR Books
A perfect blend of the historical, the scientific, and the personal, this richly detailed book sheds a whole new light on this unique element and the role it played in changing workers' rights. The Radium Girls makes it impossible for you to ignore these women's incredible stories, and proves why, now more than ever, we can't afford to ignore science, either.
Bustle
In giving voice to so many victims, Moore overburdens the story line…[yet she] details what was a “ground-breaking…accomplishment” for worker’s rights.… [A]n emotionally charged…long, sad book.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Moore's well-researched narrative is written with clarity and a sympathetic voice that brings these figures and their struggles to life…a must-read for anyone interested in American and women's history, as well as topics of law, health, and industrial safety.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) This timely book celebrates the strength of a group of women, whose determination to fight improved both labor laws and scientific knowledge of radium poisoning. Written in a highly readable, narrative style, Moore's chronicle of these inspirational women's lives is sure to provoke discussion-and outrage-in book groups.
Booklist
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Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Radium Girls…then take off on your own:
1. Trace the emotional trajectory of the women who worked with radium paint—from their initial excitement about their jobs to their realization that it was killing them.
2. What do you find most horrifying about the suffering the women endured as their health deteriorated? Was this too difficult to read? Or did you get through it?
3. Talk about the response of the United States Radium Corporation to the women's complaints—how much did it truly understood about the hazards of radium? What arguments did the company enlist against the health claims of the women?
4. What most outraged you about the treatment the women received? The dentist who approached the company for hush money, for instance? What else?
5. To what extent do today's laws offer workers protection against hazardous materials and other dangers in the workplace? Consider OSHA, for instance. How far have we come? What relevance does this story have in the 21st century?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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