How the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire exposed New York City elites and laid the foundations for modern charity

Fire in the Heart of the City details the riveting story of what happened when a tragic fire in Greenwich Village threw Adolph Ochs, the ambitious new publisher of the New York Times, and Rose Schneiderman, a defiant young labor organizer, against each other in a momentous conflict. Following the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire—the worst disaster New York City had ever experienced—a significant feud emerged between New York’s wealthy elite and labor rights’ activists over who should organize the city's response: a nascent charity sector led by the city's wealthiest bankers or the reform-focused unions of Lower Manhattan.

This revelatory account captures the rapid ascent of modern charity in America. David Conrad-Pérez details more than the disaster. He recreates what happened next, a watershed moment when a handful of charities on the brink of irrelevance were suddenly recast as New York’s best answer to addressing the social and economic conditions responsible for the fire, a story long buried by destroyed files and hidden partnerships. Drawing on newly released archival documents, previously confidential reports, private diaries, and interviews, Conrad-Pérez uncovers the unprecedented campaign that advanced a small group of bankers and social elites and their idea for a new type of charity. The very people blamed for creating the problem became experts on the issues, saving the reputations of everyone involved—until now.

Fire in the Heart of the City is an absorbing portrait of an extraordinary moment in the formation of modern American charity, casting new light on its profoundly dangerous and misunderstood legacy.