Jody M. (jodymcgrath) -
Helpful Score: 3
This book not only told the history of the dial painters who were poisoned by radiation from painting glowing dials for the war effort, it went deeper and made it into a story about the individual girls and their lives and the struggles and losses they suffered everyday from this poisoning. It was beautifully heart wrenching. You felt you knew these girls; these girls were your neighbors, your coworkers, or your family. You wanted justice for them. You knew their fate and yet you hoped of some other outcome, just this one time. This book took a didfferent approach to this story that hit you right in the feels. Excellent storytelling. I highly recommend this great read!
**I received a copy of this book and have given an honest review**
**I received a copy of this book and have given an honest review**
Eadie B. (eadieburke) -
Helpful Score: 1
The Curies discover the element radium which became the wonder drug of the medical community used in the fight of cancer tumors. It was also used to paint watch dials on soldiers' watches during WWI because the element shines bright in the dark. Young girls were eager to get these jobs at the radium-dial factories as the radium dust caused their bodies to light up and they became known as 'the shining girls'. As the girls became mysteriously ill and died, the factories were covering up the problem. The brave shining girls soon find themselves in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century. It became the groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that started the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) Federal Agency.
It is a very hard book to read as it describes girl after girl who were losing their teeth, jaws and body parts from inserting the paint brush tips full of radium in their mouths in order to better paint the watch dials. Kate Moore has done excellent research and shows how the girl's courage ultimately saved thousands of lives. I would recommend this book to those who love true historic stories.
It is a very hard book to read as it describes girl after girl who were losing their teeth, jaws and body parts from inserting the paint brush tips full of radium in their mouths in order to better paint the watch dials. Kate Moore has done excellent research and shows how the girl's courage ultimately saved thousands of lives. I would recommend this book to those who love true historic stories.
Dawn B. (stargazingbookworm) -
Helpful Score: 1
Finished Radium Girls last night. It was good. Extremely hard to read. It was a book that I had to read in smaller sittings, because the subject matter is so dire. Reading detailed medical facts about what each person's story was very difficult, until I read the back of the book and realized that was the purpose of the writer. She felt that each of these ladies had made huge contributions so that others would be protected. Found extremely interesting that we can thank these shining women for OSHA being here now. I do think that perhaps more of an explanation of the purpose of the story would have helped. It was absolutely a story that needed to be known.
I'm glad I read it and these ladies and their stories will continue to haunt me. What they went through was beyond horrific. The lies, even when they were given medical tests, more lies. Just so awful.
I'm glad I read it and these ladies and their stories will continue to haunt me. What they went through was beyond horrific. The lies, even when they were given medical tests, more lies. Just so awful.
Cathy C. (cathyskye) -
After reading Moore's The Woman They Could Not Silence and having it be one of my Best Reads of the Year, I remembered that I had a copy of Radium Girls, so I had to read it, too. Guess what? Radium Girls is also one of my Best Reads of the Year, which means that whenever Kate Moore has a new book published, I'm buying it.
Moore's writing style brings all the people involved, all the facts, to life. Reading from today's more enlightened perspective, what people were doing with radium in the early twentieth century was not only nauseating but horrifying. (For example, the radium waste from the dial-painting factories looked like sand, so it was offloaded to schools for their playground sandboxes.) But, you have to cut them some slack. These people didn't realize the time bomb they were treating so cavalierly. That all changed once it became known how deadly radium is.
The corporate greed shown boggled the mind as well as the legal wranglings to avoid having their profits cut into. The unbridled greed wasn't surprising, and neither was the difference in the companies' reactions to what was done when it was discovered male lab workers were becoming ill versus what was done when the female dial painters became ill.
Moore outlines just what these young women had to endure, both physically and mentally, as they fought for justice. And what a group of women! Knowing it was already too late for them, they continued to fight their legal battles for those who would follow after them. What makes this piece of history even more poignant is how Moore brings each woman to life. These women weren't just court cases with gruesome physical wounds; Moore reminds readers how pretty they were. How they liked to spend those high wages they were making. The clothes and hats they liked to wear. How they loved parties and planned for their weddings and dreamed of the children they would have. How they laughed and loved and found strength they didn't even know they had. In showing how they lived, not just how they died, Moore puts the heart and soul into this chapter of history-- and makes it a chapter we should all know and remember.
Kate Moore, thank you for bringing Catherine Wolfe Donohue, Katherine Schaub, Grace Fryer, Margaret Looney, Pearl Payne, and the other Radium Girls back into the spotlight. Their stories should never be forgotten.
Moore's writing style brings all the people involved, all the facts, to life. Reading from today's more enlightened perspective, what people were doing with radium in the early twentieth century was not only nauseating but horrifying. (For example, the radium waste from the dial-painting factories looked like sand, so it was offloaded to schools for their playground sandboxes.) But, you have to cut them some slack. These people didn't realize the time bomb they were treating so cavalierly. That all changed once it became known how deadly radium is.
The corporate greed shown boggled the mind as well as the legal wranglings to avoid having their profits cut into. The unbridled greed wasn't surprising, and neither was the difference in the companies' reactions to what was done when it was discovered male lab workers were becoming ill versus what was done when the female dial painters became ill.
Moore outlines just what these young women had to endure, both physically and mentally, as they fought for justice. And what a group of women! Knowing it was already too late for them, they continued to fight their legal battles for those who would follow after them. What makes this piece of history even more poignant is how Moore brings each woman to life. These women weren't just court cases with gruesome physical wounds; Moore reminds readers how pretty they were. How they liked to spend those high wages they were making. The clothes and hats they liked to wear. How they loved parties and planned for their weddings and dreamed of the children they would have. How they laughed and loved and found strength they didn't even know they had. In showing how they lived, not just how they died, Moore puts the heart and soul into this chapter of history-- and makes it a chapter we should all know and remember.
Kate Moore, thank you for bringing Catherine Wolfe Donohue, Katherine Schaub, Grace Fryer, Margaret Looney, Pearl Payne, and the other Radium Girls back into the spotlight. Their stories should never be forgotten.
Rachel A. (ra7) reviewed The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women on + 1029 more book reviews
Starting around 1917 workers, mainly young women, worked with radium based paint to paint the dials of clocks, watches, and instrument panels of aircraft for the military. The paint was luminous. Radium was considered "safe" by many. But then within 2-5 years, the women started to get sick. Often starting with a sore leg, sore teeth, it progressed until they died. And not a "good death." They took time to die, it was slow and painful. It took decades for any true justice to be served. Unfortunately, neither company; The Radium Dial Company (IL) or The United States Radium Corporation (NJ), was truly held accountable. And don't forgot Luminous Processes (founded by the ousted members of Radium Dial- Joseph Kelly and Rufus Fordyce).
The strength of this book is that the women are relatable. They come alive on the page and could have been your daughter, sister, wife, mother, cousin, friend (you get the picture). The focus is on them as people first and second is what happened to them.
Because of these women, who later participated in studies both while alive and in death, much was learned about radioactivity. Most of what we now know, can be traced directly to these women and their willingness to subject themselves and participate in medical studies. We can thank them for the creation of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). Anyone who works with chemicals (any type) has access to the material safety data sheets (MSDS) for the details of the chemicals they work with.
The strength of this book is that the women are relatable. They come alive on the page and could have been your daughter, sister, wife, mother, cousin, friend (you get the picture). The focus is on them as people first and second is what happened to them.
Because of these women, who later participated in studies both while alive and in death, much was learned about radioactivity. Most of what we now know, can be traced directly to these women and their willingness to subject themselves and participate in medical studies. We can thank them for the creation of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). Anyone who works with chemicals (any type) has access to the material safety data sheets (MSDS) for the details of the chemicals they work with.
R E K. (bigstone) - , reviewed The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women on + 1453 more book reviews
An awesome read by a talented author. Can one say one enjoys a read like this? Probably not but the historical aspect and the research that went into this novel is out of this world. As the author looked at what had been printed about the topic she found that most were scientific or legally focused. She decided she wanted to tell the story from the point of view of those affected by radium poisoning. The brave women who took sued the companies and braved the lawyers who represented them are to be admired. In spite of their illnesses and how it affected them the women were determined to bring the companies to task. Few lawyers would represent them because of the difficulty of the trials, the laws that should protect them but didn't and the companies tricks and lies made the effort so very difficult. It took 50 years before laws were in place to protect the workers. Interestingly, the eventural impact was great that the individual who was in charge of the Manhattan project using plutonium put rigid protective guides in place for those working with this element.
historical. story of women who worked painting watches with luminous paint made with radium in 1920s and 1930s. They all ended up with cancer and other fatal diseases and most died young. The book is about them and their lives but also about their legal battles against the companies. Their fight helped lead to the creation of OSHA and changes in workers comp laws. Their deaths were tragic but their will to fight to improve things for others was admirable.
Alice B. reviewed The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women on + 3588 more book reviews
This is an excellent book. British ghostwriter Moore traces the lives of more than a dozen American women who were employed as luminous watch-dial painters as early as 1917. She tells how these women, some barely in their 20s, were enchanted by high pay and the allure of the paint's luminescent substance: radium. Carefully researched, the work will stun readers with its descriptions of the glittering artisans who, oblivious to health dangers, twirled camel-hair brushes to fine points using their mouths, a technique called lip-pointing. By the end of 1918, one out of six American soldiers owned a luminous watch, but the women had begun losing their teeth and entire pieces of their jaws. Moore describes the gruesome effects of radiation exposure on these women's bodies, and she spares nothing in relaying the intense emotional suffering of their friends and families during subsequent medical investigations and court battles. In giving voice to so many victims, Moore overburdens the story line, which culminates with a 1938 headline trial during which a former employee of the Radium Dial Company collapsed on the stand and had to testify from bed. Moore details what was a ;ground-breaking, law-changing, and life-saving accomplishment for workers rights; it lends an emotionally charged ending to a long, sad book. Corporations are evil, and do not care about everyday people.
Excellent excellent story. Hard to read what these girls went through. Couldn't put it down
