A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon Charts Bestseller!
For fans of Hidden Figures, comes the incredible true story of the women heroes who were exposed to radium in factories across the U.S. in the early 20th century, and their brave and groundbreaking battle to strengthen workers’ rights, even as the fatal poison claimed their own lives…
In the dark years of the … claimed their own lives…
In the dark years of the First World War, 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. 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. And, until they begin to come forward.
As the women start to speak out on the corruption, the factories that once offered golden opportunities ignore all claims of the gruesome side effects. 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. A timely story of corporate greed and the brave figures that stood up to fight for their lives, these women and their voices will shine for years 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…
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This was such an informative book about an era I knew nothing about.
This is a true story about dial painters who played a major role in the war giving the dials “Glo in the dark visibility” capable for night vision in airplanes, ships, mobile units etc., necessary to read +perform operations to do their jobs successfuly. This dial painting job was toxic, causing severe suffering from damages to their health, and to shorten their lives.
Tragic story of inhumanity towards innocent women.
Interesting, but overly long and seemed to be obsessed with how pretty the girls had been, as if that’s why being poisoned at work was tragic
Very informative. Did you know about this issue.
One of if not the best books I’ve ever read. It’s sad it’s true! One can learn much from reading this. How we need to learn today from the past that this never happens again.
An in depth retelling of a tragic historical fact about the women affected by radium poisoning.
Loved this book. Parts are hard to read, but, this story needed to be told.
it was very informative on a subject that was hidden for too many years
Incredible book, though absolutely heartbreaking. Well written. I’d read more work by this author, especially true-event books.
This is an amazing book that brings an untold true story to life. The fact that this happened and that no one cared because making a monetary killing was Number One on the Agenda is a harsh truth that nothing had has changed today and human lives are expendable.
This is an important book. The beginnings of Workers’ Compensation, and a clear view to how women and girls were treated in the workplace and society as a whole. What happened to these women is repugnant and heartbreaking.
Needed better editing
An amazing book that chronicles a terrible price paid by these women. In the end, it was very inspiring and showed the courage it took to pursue justice.
I’ve recommended this book to many people and they all came back with the response – how could this happen!
Sometimes a difficult read. A chapter in history I knew nothing about. These women wanted a chance to make a living with decent pay and what they endured in the end was horrific. This book should servee as a cautionary tale about unsafe practices in industry and is one reason OSHA was, and istill is, needed today.
It was an opportunity to contribute to their families and gain independence, and the jobs paid well. The young women who and girls who flocked to the new jobs of painting numbers on watches, clock faces and military instruments with a luminous new product were the shining girls.
During the turn of the century, the Curies discovered the element of radium and it quickly became a ‘wonder’ product for everything: a cure all in medicine, a beauty aid and as a useful luminous paint for all those watches, clocks and instruments. What they didn’t know quite that early on was that it was also radioactive and would have heavy consequences once it invaded the body.
And those young women who worked in the factories putting the faces on all those time and measurement devices would be the ones paying the bulk of the cost as they dipped their fine paint brushes into the radium-laced paint, put them between their lips to shape into a point and then painted. Over and over for six days a weak on hundreds of watch, clock and instrument faces. And slowly, they were being poisoned and sickening.
This book tells the true and extremely maddening, sad story of the industry that offered them a bright future but then refused to warn them of the deadly danger. The company that fought them tooth and nail through the courts, refusing to admit that they knew they were signing the women’s death warrants and would not compensate them for the death sentence.
Like The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, this book points to that period of history where workers were simply human cogs in the wheels of industry and their products and workplaces were unsafe but there were no government agencies overseeing what was happening. But the incidents in these two books were part of what changed that in this country. The changes that now protect workers from unsafe working conditions and consumers from tainted products came at a high human cost.
In The Radium Girls, Kate Moore has introduced us to those brave soldiers who fought to bring about justice — for some it came too late but fight the good fight they did, for their fellow workers and for those who came afterwards. It is an unforgettable sad, depressing but extremely important story. I will not forget these young women whose lives were cut short by a silent killer.
I waited a few days before I begin thinking about writing this review and I still do not know where to start. So bear with me and we will start at the beginning of this journey. I had never heard about the Radium Girls, they were not talked about when I was in school. I found a podcast called The Morbid Curiosity Podcast, now anyone that actually knows me will not be surprised that I jumped on this as soon as I saw the name. So since I found it around the end of last year I have been working through the backlog of episodes that they have and one of them was on the Radium Girls. I was so amazed by the story that I began looking into them and that led me to find this book.
While reading this book I was constantly surprised at the new lows that these women went through. I know this should not have surprised me but their story was so tragic and a lot of things could have been prevented. My heart truly went out to these girls they suffered so much and were treated so horribly. I know I am not doing any justice for this book I just can not put the words together that I want to. I was so moved and truly inspired by the spirit of these women.
***SPOILER***
I usually try not to do this but…
I can’t even imagine living through what they did, having bones and limbs removed just to slow down the radium poisoning. Then to have the person that put you in that position, who knew that you were being poisoned, to just stand back and say prove it. The exams they made them go through just to humiliate these women and try to dismiss them like they were worth nothing just makes me want to scream. They knew the dangers hell they protected the other Male staff in the labs with lead aprons and then told these women to lip point their brushes again and again. Then knowing they were going to die, they tried to delay the trial so that they wouldn’t survive long enough to be able to finish the case. I know I shouldn’t be surprised but I had more faith in people.
***SPOILER END***
Sorry, I guess I needed to just vent all those thoughts since they are the first things that come to mind when I think of this story. I guess there is no way to really not spoil the story.
I really wish that their story was at least touched on in school it is such an important part of our short history.
Tragic story about the women who suffered radium poisoning from working on watches and clocks due to the materials they were given to use. I had never been aware of this incident in time. Tragic.
Important part of history that most people do not know about.