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Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919
by Stephen Puleo
Gripping, informative, and surprisingly relevant, and it made me wonder about all of the other things I probably should have learned in my high school history classes
In his book, Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, Stephen Puloe manages to use a rather obscure historical event – the flooding of Boston's North End by a tankful of molasses – to illustrate a wide range of topics critical to U.S. society.
This book is an important glimpse at a mostly forgotten historical event, and all of the factors that went into this disaster. Somehow, in between all of the information about molasses, its various uses and economic impact during the first World War; the slave trade, and its role in making New England into the center of commerce it grew to be; the emergence of Boston's North End as a predominantly Italian neighborhood in the early 20th century, and the widespread discriminations this particular ethnic group was facing; the role of other forces, including organized labor, anarchists, and company leaders only looking out for their bottom line; and the personal histories of those unfortunate people who suffered through it, the author has managed to weave together a cohesive, thorough and engaging story.
This flood may be a widely unknown and relatively small (in terms of victims) disaster in our history, but it is by no means insignificant. I found this book gripping, informative, and surprisingly relevant, and it made me wonder about all of the other things I probably should have learned in my high school history classes. If some of my teachers had had Puloe's ability to make history seem like it affected real people, maybe I would have.
Title: Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919
Author: Stephen Puleo
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807050202
Review written by: Melissa
Reviewer's Rating:9.5
Reader's Rating: 5.00
Reader's Votes: 1
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