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Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, by Stephen Puleo
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Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters was playing cards in Boston's North End when they heard a tremendous crash. It was like roaring surf, one of them said later. Like a runaway two-horse team smashing through a fence, said another. A third firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window-"Oh my God!" he shouted to the other men, "Run!"
A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses had just collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outset traveled at 35 miles an hour. It demolished wooden homes, even the brick fire station. The number of dead wasn't known for days. It would be years before a landmark court battle determined who was responsible for the disaster.
- Sales Rank: #185575 in Books
- Brand: Puleo, Stephen
- Published on: 2004-09-16
- Released on: 2004-09-16
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.97" h x .75" w x 6.04" l, .98 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 273 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Publishers Weekly
In this volume, Puleo, a contributor to American History magazine, sets out to determine whether the collapse of a molasses tank that sent a tidal wave of 2.3 million gallons of the sticky liquid through Boston's North End and killed 21 people was the work of Italian anarchists or due to negligence by the tank's owner, United States Industrial Alcohol. Getting into the minds of the major players in the disaster-USIA suits, victims, witnesses, North End residents, politicians-he re-creates not only the scene but also the social, political and economic environments of the time that made the disaster more than just an industrial accident. While the collapse's aftermath is tragic, the story itself is not exactly gripping. More interesting are the tidbits of Boston's and America's history, such as the importance of molasses to all U.S. war efforts up to and including WWI, which Puleo uses to put the tank collapse in the context of a very complex time in U.S. history. The most striking aspect of this tale is the timeliness of the topics it touches on. Describing Americans being persecuted because of their ethnicity, a sagging economy boosted by war, and terrorism on U.S. soil that results in anti-immigration laws and deportations, Puleo could just as easily be writing about current events as about events in 1919. Overall, this is another piece in the jigsaw puzzle that is Boston's long and rich history. Photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From The New Yorker
In January, 1919, a fifty-foot tank filled with molasses exploded, sending waves of viscous goo through waterfront Boston and killing twenty-one people. Were Italian anarchists to blame or was it negligence by the tank's owner, the United States Industrial Alcohol company? Such matters form the crux of Puleo's account, which is narrated with gusto (and sometimes too much gusto: one victim has molasses "clinging to his private parts, like an army of insects that just keep coming"). Molasses was a vital commodity at the time, used in rum manufacture (the tank was full to the brim to cash in on pre-Prohibition demand), and it had been important in the production of First World War munitions. Puleo overreaches in claiming the story of the flood as a "microcosm of America"—an almost obligatory conclusion in this sort of history—but his enthusiasm for a little-known catastrophe is infectious.
Copyright � 2005 The New Yorker
Review
Narrated with gusto . . . [Puleo's] enthusiasm for a little-known catastrophe is infectious. —The New Yorker
"Compelling . . . Puleo has done justice to a gripping historical story."—Ralph Ranalli, Boston Globe
"Thoroughly researched . . . weaves together the stories of the people and families affected by the disaster, with often heartbreaking glimpses of their fates . . . The cleanup lasted months, the lawsuits years, the fearful memories a lifetime." —Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press
"Giving a human face to tragedy is part of the brilliance of Stephen Puleo's Dark Tide . . . Until they were given voice in this book, the characters who drove the story were forgotten." —Caroline Leavitt, Boston Sunday Globe
Most helpful customer reviews
50 of 51 people found the following review helpful.
"the product of world conditions"
By mwreview
Dark Tide by Stephen Puleo details the molasses flood that devastated the Commercial Street area in Boston on January 15, 1919. A fifty-foot tall steel tank owned by United States Industrial Alcohol Company (USIA) collapsed and unleashed 2.3 million gallons of molasses on the congested waterfront district in a fifteen-foot-high wave moving as fast as thirty-five miles per hour. Incredible structural damage resulted as well as over one hundred injuries and a score of deaths. I had never heard of this tragedy until I ran across this book as an Amazon.com recommendation. It seems odd to me that this event is not more widely known due to its unusual nature. Puleo explains that it was considered an "isolated event not connected with larger trends in American history" (x). The author sets out to make these connections throughout his book. The story of January 15, 1919 and its aftermath is interwoven with the most important headlines of the day.
Puleo expertly connects the molasses flood to the Great War (the USIA was distilling molasses for industrial alcohol used in munitions production), anarchism and the Red Scare (the tank was built in a southern Italian district), Prohibition, and the pro-Big Business administrations of Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. The author also demonstrates, mostly through the deposition of the USIA assistant treasurer responsible for the tank's construction, the unbelievably rushed and careless manner in which the tank was built. It leaked profusely from the outset. Workers near the tank, even the children in the community, noticed the leaks but the company responded only by occasionally re-caulking the plates and rivets and painting the tank molasses color to make the leaks less noticeable.
A moving account of the human suffering resulting from the bursting tank follows as well as a detailed look at the long trial and the verdicts and damages awarded. The author shows a lot of respect for Judge Ogden and, unfortunately, gives away the verdict in a caption under his photo before the section on the trial. The defense's argument was that the tank was exploded by anarchists (the trial coincided with incidents of anarchist violence as well as the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti). Puleo ends with the direct short-term and long-term effects of the Boston molasses flood. His view that the verdict marked a change in America's attitude towards Big Business; a trend that led to the election of Franklin Roosevelt, seemed a stretch, but the other more local ramifications were important and makes one wonder further why this tragedy is not more well-known. A list of the deceased, biographical essay, and index are included as well as a few photos (mostly taken on the scene of the flood's destructive wake).
My biggest criticism is that Puleo often describes what is going on in the minds of the people involved which, for a historical book, is always a dicey thing to do. He does not follow-up on Isaac Gonzales. He is introduced right at the beginning as the "general man" of the Boston tank that was haunted by fear that the leaking tank would explode. He finally had to leave his job and move to Ohio. He apparently gave testimony at the trial, but Puleo offers no excerpts from it, nor is there any word on Gonzales' reaction when finding out his greatest fear became reality. Gonzales was not listed among those on which Puleo followed-up (no fault of the author's if no information was available) but it would have been nice to read a post-flood statement from Gonzales and have the book go full circle. Despite these minor complaints, Dark Tide is a clearly written, thorough account of a little known tragedy that has more connection to the historical fabric of the country than a lot of tragedies that have gone on into legend.
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful.
Awesome - a pleasant surprise!
By Book Maven
This book was easy to read and very, very compelling. Until I picked this book up, I'd never heard of the Great Boston Molasses Flood, which is odd, because it's one of the most eerie and fascinating disasters to occur in the 20th Century. Even though you know what's going to happen with the molasses tank, the suspense is dreadful and nightmarish. The author did a wonderful job in bringing all of the strange events and principal characters to vivid life and treating the tragedy with pathos and respect. A nail-biter! Would make a great movie!
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
A compelling history and so much more
By Paula J. Hoyt
As a Massachusetts native, I was naturally drawn to this book, having heard vague references over the years to "spilled" molasses in Boston, but not many factual details about this bizarre disaster. But Dark Tide is a story - and I emphasize the word story - that offers so much more. If you're looking for a dry history lesson, look elsewhere. Like any great story, it brings its characters to life. I challenge you to read Dark Tide and not feel compelled to find out what happens to Guiseppe Iantosca's young son and daughter, who liked to play around the doomed molasses tank, or Martin Clougherty, who lived in the shadow of the tank but was on the verge of moving his family to a better life in the suburbs, or firefighter George Layhe, who thought January 15 would be just another day on the job. Of course, Dark Tide has its less-than-lovable characters too, and you'll be drawn to all the ordinary people whose lives were profoundly changed on a balmy January day in 1919. For a story that takes place more than 84 years ago, it offers themes that could be "ripped from today's headlines" - corporate irresponsibility, regulations to ensure public safety, heroic firefighters, and the threat of terrorism. And the courtroom drama in Part Three will leave you hungry for more information on these fascinating characters, in particular, the cross examination of Dark Tide's "bad guys." Read Dark Tide - not because you're a Massachusetts native or a history buff, but because you like a great story.
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