Candid and intimate accounts of the factory-worker tragedy that shaped American labor rights.

On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the Asch Building in Greenwich Village, New York. The top three floors housed the Triangle Waist Company, a factory where approximately 500 workers, mostly young immigrant women and girls, labored to produce fashionable cotton blouses, known as “waists.”

The fire killed 146 workers in a mere 15 minutes but pierced the perpetual conscience of citizens everywhere. The Asch Building had been considered a modern fireproof structure, but inadequate fire safety regulations left the workers inside unprotected. The tragedy of the fire, and the resulting movements for change, were pivotal in shaping workers' rights and unions.

A powerful collection of diverse voices, Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political Essays on the Triangle Fire brings together stories from writers, artists, activists, scholars, and family members of the Triangle workers. Nineteen contributors from across the globe speak of a singular event with remarkable impact. One hundred and eleven years after the tragic incident, Talking to the Girls articulates a story of contemporary global relevance and stands as an act of collective testimony: a written memorial to the Triangle victims.

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“This book is a beautiful embodiment of testimony.”

— The Christian Century

 

"This work brings labor's history to life with stories and voices that have echoed down through generations. Apropos in these times as we are reminded of the horror of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire that fueled union organizing and union demands for enforceable occupational safety standards. As we learned then and painfully know now, workplace safety doesn’t just happen. The essays create a rich, unique view of our past while calling us to stand in solidarity today."

— Sara Nelson, International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO

 

“Talking to the Girls explores the wide-ranging effects of the 1911 fire on victims’ and survivors’ family members, artists, teachers, and labor activists. With many of its essays written by authors with personal connections to the disaster, Giunta and Trasciatti have woven together a collection that not only memorializes the tragedy but covers the ways, as they told The Progressive, it “continues to act as a catalyst for many forms of activism, from the street to the classroom.”

— Sarah Cords, The Progressive Magazine

“a call to keep the enduring memory of solidarity alive.”

— Roseanne Giannini Quinn, Altreitalie

“As a historian of migration, I really appreciate the book’s ability to show how important it is to keep history alive, to think seriously about how scholars can bring their expertise to bear beyond academia, and to collaborate with a broad range of actors to enact change. As a teacher, I look forward to assigning this book to my students.”

— Maddalena Marinari, Iperstoria

“Talking to the Girls is an insightfully constructed anthology of threaded history, scholarship, memory, family lore, teaching practices, and labor activism…. This international anthology embraces answerability, call and response, through multiple individual voices orchestrated as a collective chorus.””

— Janet Zandy, author of Hands: Physical Labor, Class, and Cultural Work

“This deeply moving and poignant anthology reminds us that the past is not over. By feeling the truth of the Triangle Fire—the trauma, the loss, and the fury—each essay invites us to remember the beauty of workers and organizers then and today who fight for a world where the wellbeing of workers is not sacrificed for capitalist greed.”

— Jennifer Guglielmo, Associate Professor of History, Smith College, author of Living the Revolution, and co-director, “Putting History in Domestic Workers’ Hands”

 

“Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political Essays on the Triangle Fire, is the first anthology of personal essays about this landmark tragedy—and spur for change—in American life. As such, these stories by survivors, family members, descendants, scholars, and activists are as sharp and sad and enraging and resolute as the fire itself was in galvanizing us to justice. Editors Edvige Giunta and Mary Anne Trasciatti do more than edit here, they know how to listen, and let these many varied voices bear witness.

— Kevin Baker, author of Dreamland

“A kaleidoscope of history that came to have a home within the hearts of these contributors, who share their personal reflections about the devastating events of 1911 and its legacy.”

— Jane Latour, New York Labor History Association

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