The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women (Thorndike Press Large Print Popular and Narrative Nonfiction)

Incredible true story; I could not put this book down. Excellent research and storytelling.

This book is incredible! These amazing women from our past--there's really no other way to describe such brave women who had the courage to stand up and fight a government, a business, an industry, and a complete system that was firmly against them... when they were in pain, suffering devastating illness and disease. This book is just incredible. It will bring you to tears, but it's not all sad. It's also very heartwarming and absolutely brilliant. Very well-written, it captures the hearts of these ladies who clearly had a zest for life, wanted to help their country, and then later help their fellow women. This is a testimony to the strength of women, and all of these women were strongly Christian, praying regularly for themselves and each other, at a time when the country was very Christian. This is an absolute must-read!!

Kate Moore’s The Radium Girls is one of those books that makes you want to alternately hug the young women in its early pages and then throw the nearest hard object at the management offices of every radium company in the United States. The opening chapters are almost too sweet, with the young women, bright-eyed, innocent, and armed with nothing more than a steady hand and a dream of a steady paycheck, painting luminous dials as if they were painting their way into history. Spoiler: they were, just not in the way anyone had in mind. The image of girls smiling as they “lip-pointed” their brushes, swallowing poison while unknowingly lighting their way to tragedy, is gut-wrenching in a way that sticks to your ribs far longer than the glow-in-the-dark paint stuck to theirs. As the narrative shifts, so too does the tone, moving from naïve joy to the corporate equivalent of an ice bath. The businesses, confronted with the obvious truth that their workers were wasting away like candles left in a furnace, responded not with humanity or decency but with the kind of cold-hearted abdication of responsibility that would make even Ebenezer Scrooge raise an eyebrow. Every excuse, every denial, every instance of “surely it must be something else killing them” reads like a masterclass in how not to have a soul. The management, faced with suffering they had the power to alleviate, instead chose the noble route of circling wagons, covering tracks, and gaslighting the very people whose bones were literally crumbling. And yet, Moore’s writing never lets the women fade into victimhood. The bravery, tenacity, and sheer refusal to be silenced is the glowing core of the story, a reminder that sometimes justice doesn’t arrive neatly packaged but dragged in, kicking and screaming, by those who simply won’t quit. This book is infuriating, inspiring, heartbreaking, and oddly luminous; an unforgettable story of innocence lost and courage found, told with a sharpness that makes the injustice burn as brightly as the paint once did.

Review first published on jenasbookreviews.blogspot,com Radium was the latest craze after Marie Curie discovered it and business was keen to get in on finding as many applications for it as possible but for the most part, it was too expensive for the everyday person but painting dials for fancy watches or aircraft? That was just the ticket for a couple of the big radium corporations. And for young girls, some as young as 14, trying to help their families make ends meet it was such a simple job. Lick, dip, paint the number on the dial. Lick, dip, paint some more. If you were one of the lucky girls, you worked at the factory where you were allowed to play with it and see just what kind of a glow you could get when painting it on your teeth, nails, clothes, etc. Except every time they licked their brushes to get them to the proper point, they were ingesting a little more radium paint..every.single.time..usually for years. And then they started getting weird health problems. Abscessed teeth but the jaw wouldn't heal when the tooth was removed. Teeth just getting loose and falling out. Limbs shrinking. Tumors. But the companies refused to admit any wrongdoing, even after reports were coming out that it was the radium. Most lawyers refused to take their cases. The laws at that time did not adequately cover radium exposure. It was a fight of the people vs. big corporations and it was a fight that many did not think they could win. Some didn't. Some died before they knew what was happening to them. Some died before they could get a lawyer to accept their case. Some died while trials were going on. But there were many who fought and kept fighting. Some won their cases and some lost. Some won settlements that were truly helpful and others won only a pittance. Some were shunned by their communities but they kept fighting. And laws were changed. Not as many as needed. Some of these factories were still operating with similar procedures into the 1970s but things did change although it took many years and many of these shining women did not live to see it. May we learn from what they went through as big corporations continue to thrive on the backs of their workers whom too many see as disposable commodities, easily replaced. Many books have chronicled the court cases and looked at the story from a more technical perspective but this one tried to give the girls a voice about who they were, what their hopes and dreams were before this happened to them, and also after when they realized what was happening. It's a little too chipper at times and the voices of the girls tend to blend into one homogenized voice rather than hearing them as individuals but it's well researched and a very accessible read.

Yet another incredibly written example of why regulatory requirements are needed to protect people from greedy corporations.

Es un libro grande, pero ameno, aunque es una investigación periodística me pareció muy bien escrito. Una historia real triste

Als die "Radium Girls" ihre tägliche Ration mit radiumhältiger Leuchtfarbe bemalter Armbanduhren herstellten, gab es in Amerika noch kaum einen gesetzlichen Schutz für Arbeitnehmer, die an berufsbedingten Leiden erkrankten. Niemand kümmerte sich darum, als den Frauen die Zähne ausfielen, die Kieferknochen bröckelten, Mund, Zunge und Schlund von Geschwüren zerfressen wurden, ihre Beine ungleich lang wurden. Ärzte, die keine Ahnung hatten, was Radium wirklich bewirkte, schrieben alle möglichen Verlegenheitsdiagnosen in die Totenscheine. Anwälte, an die die Kranken sich wandten, zuckten die Achseln. Wie beweisen, dass das angeblich so gesunde, erfrischende, jungmachende radium, dieser "trinkbare Sonnenschein", dieses "Jugendelixier" nach Jahren seine teuflische Wirkung entfalten würde, indem es von innen heraus die Knochen zerstörten? Nicht einmal Marie Curie (die daran starb) glaubte daran. Der Konzern, bei dem die Frauen angestellt gewesen waren, kämpfte mit einer unglaublichen Brutalität und Menschenverachtung um jeden Fußbreit Boden, obwohl sogar der Begründer der Firma daran gestorben war. Alle juristischen Tricks, aller Zynismus, alle Gemeinheit wurde ins Feld geworfen, um die Klägerinnen hinzuhalten, bis sie von selber sterben würden. Ein Anwalt, der sich um sie annahm, warf das Handtuch; ließ sich vom Konzern einen Knebelvertrag abringen. Ein anderer war mutiger. Er gewann den Kampf gegen eine mächtige, politische einflussreiche Firma mit unbegrenzten finanziellen Möglichkeiten. Die "Ghost Girls", wie man sie wegen ihrer im Dunkeln sichtbaren grünlichen Aura nannte, erhielten ihr Recht - und die Gesetze zum Schutz der Arbeitnehmer wurden geändert.

This book was heartbreaking. The true story of the girls who painted radium pieces for dials, clocks and watches during WWI, the 20s and 30s. Many of them were very young when they started (as young as 13!) Most of them died young as well. The suffering they endured was unbearable and the battle they fought was incredible. Their story resonates through to today, with occupational health and safety legislation becoming more comprehensive as a result of their battle and sacrifice. Beyond the health and safety aspect, the experuence of these unfortunate women illustrates other issues as well - the gender disparity (if they were men, the problem would have been addressed much more quickly), the plight of the working poor, the lack of affordable medical care, and the callousness of the industrial employers. This book was well written, extremely well annotated, and, I suggest, very comprehensive. I highly recommend it.

Nice

I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and finished the read in 2 days because I just wanted to hear that justice was recieved. The read gave me much to reflect on and consider the ongoing plight for the under privileged. Well worth the read.