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A review by gingerlaura
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.25
<i><b>Lip... Dip... Paint.</i></b>
This is such an important story to be told. It's not only about thousands of victims due to radium poisoning, it's also about determination, perseverance, being united and standing for justice.
It was absolutely heartbreaking to read the story about the Radium Girls. They suffered badly, and no one would listen to them for a long, long time. They were hard working women, just trying to make a living, and oblivious to the fact that radium was, in fact, poisonous. The company was actively ignoring the problem too, because even though radium was a new element to work with, it's danger had long been established in literature before the dial-paining factories were build.
<b><i>That was the tragedy. Radium had been known to be harmful since 1901. Every death since was unnecessary.</i></b>
The fact that the company failed to acknowledge the hazards of radium poisoning, fought the girls tooth and nail while the evidence was <i>right there</i>, is what made my heart break for the girls. They sabotaged medical examinations, fought every case in court under the name of 'radium isn't poisonous', they made evidence disappear and made up fake reports. I cannot express how angry I am that innocent women had to put up with this. I can only admire their strength for standing up for what they thought was right; even when they only had a few months left to live they still stood their ground in court.
<b>Tom watched his wife from the doorway; watched as she demonstrated how she had been killed. Though he had thought himself wrung out of tears, he wept quietly, unashamedly, as Catherine showed off the simple movement that had left her little more than a living corpse.</i></b>
The girls fought hard, even when it seemed hopeless, but in the end it did pay off. They got their justice, and I couldn't be more happy for them. Even if it was too late, in the end the women won and got the justice they deserved. They not only won, but because they also donated their bodies to science they taught the world a lot about radium and what radioactivity does to the body in general. They also caused laws to be put into place for a safe work place, we have them to thank for it:
<b><i>The dial-painters' case ultimately led to the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which now works nationally in the United States to ensure safe working conditions.</i></b>
Even though the dial-paining companies have long been closed down, the results of actively ignoring the radium problems are still felt today. After a lot of sick patients could be directly linked to the factory, it was ultimately demolished. This demolishing was easier said than done unfortunately, because radium is still found in that place till this day.
<b><i>It was an operation that would take decades; in 2015, the clean-up was still going on.</b></i>
Like I said before, I think this is an important story to be told and I learned a lot from reading this book. I can recommend it to anyone, it's quite an unknown tragedy even though it had a big impact on society.
The only thing I didn't enjoy about this was the writing style. Though I do think it's important to name as many of the radium girls by name as to not to forget them, mentioning a new one and describing their hair color, eye color, personalities and boyfriends every other sentence became a bit overwhelming. I didn't really know who was who anymore, which is unfortunate. On top of that the time and place of things got a bit jumbled too sometimes, which caused me to be confused at times.
Anyways, go read this book!
This is such an important story to be told. It's not only about thousands of victims due to radium poisoning, it's also about determination, perseverance, being united and standing for justice.
It was absolutely heartbreaking to read the story about the Radium Girls. They suffered badly, and no one would listen to them for a long, long time. They were hard working women, just trying to make a living, and oblivious to the fact that radium was, in fact, poisonous. The company was actively ignoring the problem too, because even though radium was a new element to work with, it's danger had long been established in literature before the dial-paining factories were build.
<b><i>That was the tragedy. Radium had been known to be harmful since 1901. Every death since was unnecessary.</i></b>
The fact that the company failed to acknowledge the hazards of radium poisoning, fought the girls tooth and nail while the evidence was <i>right there</i>, is what made my heart break for the girls. They sabotaged medical examinations, fought every case in court under the name of 'radium isn't poisonous', they made evidence disappear and made up fake reports. I cannot express how angry I am that innocent women had to put up with this. I can only admire their strength for standing up for what they thought was right; even when they only had a few months left to live they still stood their ground in court.
<b>Tom watched his wife from the doorway; watched as she demonstrated how she had been killed. Though he had thought himself wrung out of tears, he wept quietly, unashamedly, as Catherine showed off the simple movement that had left her little more than a living corpse.</i></b>
The girls fought hard, even when it seemed hopeless, but in the end it did pay off. They got their justice, and I couldn't be more happy for them. Even if it was too late, in the end the women won and got the justice they deserved. They not only won, but because they also donated their bodies to science they taught the world a lot about radium and what radioactivity does to the body in general. They also caused laws to be put into place for a safe work place, we have them to thank for it:
<b><i>The dial-painters' case ultimately led to the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which now works nationally in the United States to ensure safe working conditions.</i></b>
Even though the dial-paining companies have long been closed down, the results of actively ignoring the radium problems are still felt today. After a lot of sick patients could be directly linked to the factory, it was ultimately demolished. This demolishing was easier said than done unfortunately, because radium is still found in that place till this day.
<b><i>It was an operation that would take decades; in 2015, the clean-up was still going on.</b></i>
Like I said before, I think this is an important story to be told and I learned a lot from reading this book. I can recommend it to anyone, it's quite an unknown tragedy even though it had a big impact on society.
The only thing I didn't enjoy about this was the writing style. Though I do think it's important to name as many of the radium girls by name as to not to forget them, mentioning a new one and describing their hair color, eye color, personalities and boyfriends every other sentence became a bit overwhelming. I didn't really know who was who anymore, which is unfortunate. On top of that the time and place of things got a bit jumbled too sometimes, which caused me to be confused at times.
Anyways, go read this book!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma