What a way to end Women's History Month. Saddest history lesson ever. If you've never heard of the The Radium Girls, you need to read this book. The Radium Girls tells the story of corporate greed and dishonesty, showcasing the injustice done when the businesses refused to protect these women hardworking women.

A fascinating, incredibly moving true story about the radium factories during WWII. It was hard to put down while at times it was hard to read the details about the work conditions, the medical problems, and how so many lives were ruined. Highly recommended.

It's unbelievable to me that throughout my education I have never once heard of the dial painters of the 20th century, nor their lasting impact on American worker's rights through their legislative battles fought against the obscenely well-funded and influential radium industry.

Moore does an outstanding job at shading the varying levels of apathy, incompetence and hostility that these women faced in discovering and coming forward with their struggles. The corporate representatives, medical professionals, and other individuals complicit in the denial and continued to acknowledge the devastatingly harmful effects of radium are appropriately identified and rightfully skewered by their role in keeping the female dial painters from whatever justice they could obtain in the face of the swift and severe conditions that they faced as a direct result of their exposure to radium.

The human aspect of the story is also extremely well drawn out, and compelling alongside the larger narrative that Moore seamlessly seasons with heart-wrenching details of individual women's stories. Towards the beginning of the book many of the smaller details that Moore lists about the women (a whole lot of unnecessary physical descriptors are invoked in the first quarter of the book) irked me to a small degree, but ultimately this was minor and is overshadowed by the vastly important narrative that was expertly woven.

The fortitude of the women captured in this book is astounding, and the story told here is deeply important not only as a piece of oft-neglected women's history, but also as a tale of awe-inspiring strength.

The Radium Girls is a very difficult read. The subject matter is painful, thought-provoking, and made me angry. The lies and deceit of the companies trying to avoid exposure and responsibility is unbelievably frustrating and heart-breaking. This book would make an excellent addition to US History, as well as any class discussing ethics. My one concern is that there are so many details given in the book that it is a very long read and that might discourage some readers.

This is a book I have not been able to forget and I find myself often thinking about the young ladies who suffered so much and received so little respect or compassion from the corporations for whom they worked. These girls were so proud and felt so fortunate to have obtained a job providing personal satisfaction as well as a decent level of income which made the horror they experienced even more profoundly deceitful. Yet the amount of strength and courage they were able to summon as they took on a system, that had all the advantages which wealth and power provide, was astonishing.

Scientific advancements continually improve our quality of lives, but the need to protect worker's safety will always be juxtaposed against the manufacturer's quest for productivity and profit. How, we as individuals and voters, view and react to this dichotomy will determine the type of society we will live in.

The Radium Girls told a heartbreaking story that I had never heard before. The beautiful, young women took a job painting watch dials with radium...the amazing new discovery that could do everything from give you "glowing" skin to cure cancer. Unbeknownst to them, radium was a very dangerous substance that eventually took their livelihoods, their beauty and their lives. The story of how they fought to try to improve their health and working conditions not only for women, but all workers is as inspiring as it is heartbreaking. I've already recommended this book to everyone I know. These women were remarkable and their story should not be lost.

The Radium Girls

This is the story of the American factory girls who painted luminous marks on watch dials. It's astonishing and heartbreaking in equal measure. At times I was incensed and at other times moved to tears of both sympathy and fury at what was going on. This is a story which needs to be told and it's an incredible slice of social history with the focus on many of the women affected and how it changed their lives and that of their family. It's difficult to believe that in the face of mounting evidence it took so long to bring about the changes needed to ensure factory workers didn't die of radium poisoning.

In the early part of the 20th century, radium was considered something of a wonder and was promoted for home use for skin improvement, better health etc. Even into the 1920's, when the potential dangers were recognised, factory workers were ingesting radium daily. They worked in factories filled with radium dust ( which incredibly was collected from time to time, mixed with sand and donated to schools for their sandpits). The factory girls literally glowed and some would even wipe the dust on their teeth if going out to a dance. It was cool to have glowing teeth! The first factory workers earned phenomenal wages; although on piece work, they quickly established a 'dip, lip, paint technique' which allowed them to work very quickly.

Kate Moore's book looks in depth at a number of women who first worked with the radium paint and follows their story. She certainly gives these girls a voice which I suspect would otherwise have remained unheard. I understand that her research includes contact with direct family members of some of those involved and there's a real feel for personalities which brings the whole story vividly to life. Some of the detail is very difficult to read, but it's right that they are not forgotten. I suspect there's a bit of poetic licence with the dialogue, but for me, it's added to the authenticity without detracting from the facts, which are now well established.

Thought provoking and intense, I'm pleased I read this book and my thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore is a historical novel that everyone who is employed must read. It tells how a group of young female workers forced a change that lead to safer working conditions and the forerunner of OSHA.

It is the early 1920’s, a time of flappers, the Charleston and good times for many. The United States Radium Factory in Orange, New Jersey, Ottawa, Illinois and Waterbury, Connecticut employed many young women to paint watch dials with a newly discovered luminescent element also known as Undark. This enabled the watches and alarm clocks to be seen in the dark. Later this same substance was used in military application such as the controls of planes and the sites of rifles. The pay was better than other jobs these women could do and they had been told that radium was harmless. Indeed, it had been added to other products such as toothpaste and tonics and was thought to improve ones health. These women were instructed to paint using their lips to form a point on the brushes, thus ingesting the radium. Not long after the women noted that some of the workers began to sicken with a mysterious range of problems. Some of the women became severely anemic, others to lose their teeth or suffer from incredible disfiguring pain. They slowly began to die.

This is the story of how these women bonded together to sue their employers over an occupational disease. They fought to have the companies they worked for acknowledge their mysterious disease was radium poisoning and to change the statue of limitation in which an employee can become sickened and file.

But more distressing was the fact that in the early 1920’s, US Radium chose to ignore and disregard reports by a Harvard physiologist. He found that the workplace and the girls were contaminated by they radium. US Radium continued to tell the workers it was harmless and that all the girls were in good health. They hid these results from them for years. Such knowledge was bad for business.

Hundreds of women were employed in these factories swallowing radium, wearing clothing that glowed at night, later even mysteriously glowing themselves. These companies had wealth, the best lawyers and political contacts that these women lacked. Most of all these women lacked time. It became a David vs. Goliath battle with many women dying before the court battle could even take place.

It is uncertain how many of these workers died of radium poisoning, but due to their efforts the United States made occupational disease compensable and the time period the workers had to file was extended. But these changes took until 1948. That’s 30 years and countless women suffered and died for the financial gain of the company. These women were surely suffragettes for safe working conditions for women.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Publishing with no obligation to review it. This is my honest review.

Although the story of the dial-painters' lawsuits has been told, it has not been told from the perspective of the girls themselves. Most of them did not survive. They died drawn out, agonizing deaths, their jaws crumbled into pieces, their limbs shortened, of strange cancers for which their doctors had no answers. Their families bankrupted themselves trying to keep up with spiraling medical and dental bills. Then the girls, most in their twenties, started to die, in excruciating pain. Yet two radium dial factory owners denied any link between their employment painting radium dials and their sickness. They refused to even contribute to medical expenses. After all, most of the illnesses manifested long after the girls left their employment. Radium poisoning was unknown and labor law favored big business. And radium was beneficent, promoted everywhere! Lawsuits dragged out for years in the hopes that the plaintiffs would die. Many did.

Interestingly, it was not an American who chose to shine a light on this shameful but important piece of our history, but an Englishwoman.

Note: Be sure to read the introduction, in which the author details her extensive research. She mentions that she even visited some of the radium girls’ grave sites and corresponded with many descendants.

The Radium Girls is an informative, infuriating, entertaining read. It reads like a legal and medical drama that cannot possible be true; yet it is. Moore kept the memories of these women alive and told their stories in a wonderful manner.

WOW! Erin Brockavich meets Silkwood meets Norma Rae - this books is a movie mash-up of 3 powerful movie situations/stories/ignorances. . I loved it. This book broke my heart, pulled on my heart, gave me hope, shed light on many types of ignorance. Powerful book. Love the personification of the women/girls in the story...this isn't just a story to be told and science, it is about people who have a story to tell. Loved the insight and making the girls so central to the plot.

The Radium Girls was a tough read. I found myself crying on several occasions out of anger and compassion. And it was not always easy for me to read the descriptions of the girls' health problems and the symptoms of radium poisoning. This doesn't influence my review, but people that are a little sensible when it comes to these descriptions, like me, should probably know that before reading the book.

Before I read that book, I didn't know anything about the use of radium in the industry in the twentieth century. But when I saw it, I got interested and decided to read it. And although I didn't plan to, I finished this book within three days. The author's style of writing and the fate of the Radium Girls really got to me and I couldn't take it down. It has been one of these non-fiction books that had more suspense than a lot of fictional books. Kate Moore brings the Radium Girls to life without emotional manipulation or giving the reader a feeling that she invented a lot of details. This might be because she not only did extensive research and included many quotes from relatives and newspaper articles from that time, but she also directed a play about the Radium Girls. That might have surely helped her developing that lively narrative.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in women's studies or the history of laws to protect people at the workplace.

Thanks for writing this book. What a tragedy these girls went through when the affects of radium was little known. The struggles the girls and family went through along with the doctors who tried to help them. Eye opening the stance some doctors, legal system, and corporation went through to hide the dangers and failed to protect the innocent victims.

I received a free copy of The Radium Girls, a recreation of the lives of the many young New Jersey women brought down by radiation poisoning in the early 1900’s from Netgalley, Kate Moore and Sourcebook in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, for sharing your hard work with me.

Kate Moore brings us an intimate look through the eyes of these girls, recreating their lives from diaries, letters and court testimonies, tombstones, family stories and dusty archives. She brings to life these feisty girls who spent their days painting minuscule radium numbers on watch faces, gun sights, and airplane dashboards. This work, done quickly and well, provided a fine income for an artistic young woman. Many applied for these jobs and encouraged their sisters and friends to apply, as well – both for the experience of working with this miraculous material discovered by the Curie’s, and to do their part for the war effort. The price they paid for this experience was horrendous. This is a story that needs to be shared so their sacrifices are not in vain, and as a cautionary tale as our world spins rapidly into tomorrow.

Even though at times it felt the pace of the book got bogged down in details, it was a very compelling story that I could not stop reading. Before picking this book up I had never heard of the plight of the Radium girls or the huge impact they made on laws which now keep workers safe. The determination of these women in the face of almost insurmountable opposition by unscrupulous companies was truly inspiring. I think our patrons will enjoy this book very much.

I thought this was such an enjoyable nonfiction read. Can't wait to share this with some of my older teens and parent readers! This will be hugely popular with fans of Hidden Figures.

The Radium Girls were young, healthy, and in the prime of their lives until mysterious ailments start to affect them. This heartbreaking and powerful book tells the story of these young women who thought they were working in a safe industry - after all, the benefits of radium were being advertised in magazines, and what a beautiful glow it gave to the skin. But, when the truth comes out, these young women have to fight for justice. It's one of those books that's hard to say you love, because of the subject matter, but it really is a remarkable, well-written read. I highly recommend it to those who also enjoyed The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Hidden Figures.







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Tara McGuinness
Cuyahoga County Public Library /Bay Village

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I began reading this book with certain expectations, having been drawn in from the summary about shops hiring women to paint radium onto objects. Maybe I shouldn't have come into it with a bias, but I was expecting straight, factual non-fiction. However, for the facts presented around this dark time in our history, the author adds to it a sort of re-imagined day some of these girls would have. It was this mix of fictional accounts with the non-fiction approach that really just turned me off to this. I just wanted this piece of history to be told in a different way. I did not care for the artistic flourishes and was too put off by this approach to finish this book.

I finished reading this and immediately bought two copies for my cousin and my environmental health professor. It made my heart hurt, but I was so amazed