Documentary Review

Documentary Review

Overview of the topic

The documentary review is based on the Fire Accident Tragedy that took place in USA in March 25, 1911. It was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City's history. The documentary highlighted the background of the factory worker's position at that time. The documentary also presented the reasons, because of which the factory fire incident took place, number of fatalities, response from Company's factory, Government and the people punished who were responsible for his incident. The detailed review of this incident would be carried out in the topic.

Detailed Review of Documentary

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire occurred in New York City on March 25, 1911. In one of the deadliest industrial accidents in American history, some 146 workers, mostly women and girls, many of whom were Jewish and Italian immigrants, died in the fire or by leaping from the building in an attempt to escape the flames. The fire also revealed the ecology of American factories, at the turn of the 20th century, and the ways in which the law sustained it. Frances Perkins (1880-1965), a social worker who served on a commission that investigated the fire and a future U.S. secretary of labor, called the fire "a turning point" in "policies toward social responsibility." Two years earlier, the Women's Trade Union League had organized the "Uprising of 20, 000," a general strike by thousands of garment workers against shirtwaist makers, which lasted for nearly two years. The specific strike against the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, however, lasted for only a few weeks, in 1910. The factory was one of a handful of shirtwaist makers that resisted unionization (Abrams, 2001).

Working conditions were substandard at the Triangle factory even by contemporary standards. The owners, for example, obeyed the letter, but not the spirit, of ...