lark1010's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5


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mald626's review

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challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.25


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cricci's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

An intimate account is of the radium girls’ story from working at the factories, through their illness, to the last impact they had on our current workplace safety culture and relevant laws. I was horrified at the lengths the companies went to in order to avoid being held accountable as well as the tortured these women endured, but at the same time, I’ve been inspired by their strength of spirit. In this way, we remember the radium girls.

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gondorgirl's review

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5.0


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aly_anne's review against another edition

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challenging informative medium-paced

5.0

This was a tough book to read, but so very informative. These women in Ottawa, IL and in Orange, NJ paved the way for the protections we have today (re: workplace hazards and compensation), and we it is incumbent on us to remember them and their families sacrifices and hardships. Highly recommend for anyone interested in women’s history, industrial history, and the impact of capitalism on worker’s health and safety. 

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bookedandbusy's review against another edition

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5.0

They deserved to be remembered 
This was an incredibly heartbreaking and thought provoking novel. These women fought so hard despite the extraordinary circumstances they faced. They didn’t give up even when they had nothing left.  Learning about the advancements in forensics, medicine, and law was fascinating, and reading about the women’s fight for justice was inspiring. 

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o_watson's review against another edition

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5.0


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miistical's review against another edition

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4.75

For too long the women had waited for the truth. The scales, at last, were tipping against the company. The girls had been given a death sentence; yet they had also been given the tools to fight their cause—to fight for justice.

The diagnosis, Katherine Schaub now said, "gave me hope."

"The Radium Girls" is one of the most captivating novels (nonfiction and fiction) that I have ever read. While the first third - Knowledge - dragged on a bit, I devoured the next 300 pages in a 6 hour single sitting. Vindication and righteousness boiled in my blood; it was like a predator was searching for prey, hoping that the next page would spell out a slip for me to latch onto with my teeth.

I am not normally a fan of nonfiction, but Kate Moore's sympathetic and detailed language was perfect for envisioning each tragedy and justice the Radium Girls went through. On occasion, it did seem a bit too detailed—there are many descriptions of the face, body type, and personality of every person mentioned. However, it dawned on me that these were very much real people, not just names with a D next to them. That clear visual of these women and those who helped them reminded me that these were people who deserved to be seen, not just as letters on a page.

By the end, it did truly feel as if I were there with these poor women. I watched the court proceedings, sat in Catherine Donahue's living room, roamed Ottawa and Orange and New York. I despaired and cheered and, quite literally!, cried with them. This book is a monument to injustice in all its forms, and I highly encourage everyone to read it so that they may truly know hopelessness—and to hope anyway.

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roksyreads's review against another edition

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5.0

A heartbreaking and inspirational account of resilience and bravery in the face of corporate greed, corruption, and utter negligence, The Radium Girls is a must read for anyone interested in social and cultural history. Moore paints in vivid detail the women (and their supporters) at the forefront of the movement to hold their employer(s) to account, and whose actions made significant contributions to early workers' rights movements more broadly. It was a privilege to read this book again after first reading it in February 2020.

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infinite_harness9030's review

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5.0


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