Dark Tide : The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919

Rating:
Summary: Tragedy in Boston in 1919.
Review: A wonderful little book about a small tragedy that happened in Boston in 1919. As a result of an above ground tank rupture, 21 people lost their lives and others were premanently crippled. Puleo deserves credit for bringing this tragedy to light. He does a good job of explaining why the tank was located in the poorest, most densely populated portion of Boston, how the tank was put together slap dash, how signs indicated the coming collaspe of the tank, and finally the rupture and the resulting court battle. The author even includes the attitudes of the largely Italian neighborhood and the execution of the Italian anarchists at the end of the book. The final summary is a large corporation put the people of this neighborhood at risk for a gain in the war profits from industrial alcohol.
This is a good read. Puleo puts a lot of interesting information into this book and it makes compelling reading.

Rating:
Summary: "the product of world conditions"
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A brief look at Boston History
Review: Growing up in Boston, I would hear the story about the Great Molasses Flood from my Italian Grandmother who lived in the North End at the time the flood occured. Steven Puleo pulls together the story of the tank, the flood and the aftermath. He weaves the story together with the history of the company who constructed the tank and the socio-political history of the early Twentieth Century. This book, written in a style that is easily accessible to everyone, is especially interesting to anyone who is interested in history.

Rating:
Summary: Puleo brings order from a disaster
Review: Simply a wonderful book. Growing up in Massachusetts, urban legend held that on a hot August day, one can still smell the molasses. Stephen Puleo brings that urban legend to life.

The best performers always make it look easy. It reads clean, energetic, scary and a hundred other positive adjectives. The description of how many ways Puleo measured the tonnage and energy of the molasses was frightening. I read it to my wife out loud. Puleo's vivid description of the moments of the actual molasses tank failure and flood, using multiple points of view, makes your palms sweaty.

I don't even have a favorite part. I like it all. The event is compelling but the following litigation was pretty interesting and well explained. Quotes from the testimony were perfectly placed in context and content. The civil hearings judge, Mr. Ogden, was quite a guy. I see definite movie story lines.

Boston Fire Department photos are well placed and provide a sad verisimilitude to the post flood physical devastation.

This books takes a footnote of Boston history and brings life, energy and death to the readers. The readers will care for the victims. Technically, very well written. As for style, one almost forgets this is a history and not a gripping work of fiction.

This book was most excellently done.