Today’s post is on The Radium Girls:
The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore. It is 496 pages long
is published by Sourcebooks. The cover is black with a neon green strip at the
top. The intended reader is someone who is interested in history. There is mild
foul language, no sex, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- 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...
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...
Review- This is an interesting if hard to read book
about a very dark subject. It is not hard to read in that is hard to engage
with but hard because you are engaged with these young women, some little more
than girls, as they encounter something so dangerous and deadly. My stomach
would turn every time I read Lip…Dip…Paint as you do many times over the course
of the book. Moore does a wonderful job making these women and their world very
real. I wanted to stop them, to save them from their very horrible deaths 100
years later. Then we are with them as they start to die, start to fight the
company that knowingly did this to them, and we watch them lose so many times.
It is a hard book to read but so very important to remember what they fought
and died for.
I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get
nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
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