Stephen Puleo

A remarkable tale about a little known, regrettable incident in American (and, particularly, Boston) history. On January 15, 1919, a 90 foot tall tank of molasses, destined for distillation into industrial alcohol for munitions manufacture, flew apart, sending a 25 foot high wave of the dark sticky substance racing through the crowded North End at speeds up to 35 mph. (So much for 'slow as molasses!') The first third of the book supplies background of the molasses trade, Boston at the turn show more of the century and introduces us to those who played a significant role in the tragedy. Most harrowing is the central portion, detailing the enormous failure of the tank and the unthinkable destruction it wrought, with attendant suffering and near misses. The last third is a chilling courtroom drama, pitting the mostly immigrant plaintiffs against a large corporation, USIA.

This story has long played at the edges of Bostonian folklore, but has never received "spotlight" treatment. Stephen Puleo rectifies this oversight with an absolutely gripping volume. The story is amazing in its own right. Puleo goes further, placing it in the context of the political and economic exigencies faced by WWI America. While the author doesn't do so, I found echos resonating to our modern era. Anti-immigrant feeling, persecution for political expression, worker safety concerns, questions over the ability of Big Business to police itself (and its culpability when it fails to do so), lack of government regulation and the effects of military/industrial spending are all issues with which we continue to struggle. This book continues to have relevance beyond the events of a near century ago.

Puleo draws largely upon primary sources, including the 25,000 page transcript of the legal proceedings. One wishes for careful footnoting or end notes, particularly where Puleo ascribes inner thoughts and feelings to someone. Puleo notes that there is little prior written work work on this topic. All the more important in the interests of history and future researchers, I would think, to carefully note one's sources. This is admittedly nit-picking. As a Bostonian, I found this book particularly intriguing. However, I think that it would have broad appeal. show less

Charles Sumner was twenty-seven, on a European tour in France when he observed students of different races, “jaunty” “men of fashion”, interacting as equals. He at once understood that education, and not nature, had divided black from white. He dedicated the rest of his life fighting to fulfilling the promise of American equality. At a time when abolitionists were disdained radicals he spoke out for the end of slavery, and when the North finally embraced abolition, he pushed for even show more more radical laws protecting equality and conferring voting rights.

The story of Sumner’s career is also the story of America’s division and its awakening and embracing the humanity of the enslaved. Sadly, with every victory and advance came a whiplash of brutality and violence, and the conflict over race and equality continues to this day.

This is the story of single-minded commitment to justice. After Sumner was caned nearly to death on the floor on congress, taking years to physically recover and left with post traumatic stress syndrome, he persevered in his mission. And, it is the story of America’s original sin and its legacy.

Sumner was an imperfect man, a lonely man, who could be cold and difficult, and he was a failed husband. He held lifelong deep friendships with luminaries like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his wife, was a close advisor President Lincoln and stayed with the dying president, and was a dear friend to Mrs. Lincoln, supporting her through the loss of her son and helping to secure her a pension after her husband’s tragic death.

I had been reading around Sumner’s life in various books, and was thrilled with every page of this revealing biography, impressed by the depth of Sumner’s impact on American history.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book. show less

Once you read this book, never again will you put any credence in that old saying, “as slow as molasses in January.” On January 15, 1919, a torrent of fast-moving, sticky molasses burst from its confines in a fifty-foot tank. Within seconds, the beginning tidal wave, 25 feet high and 160 feet wide, pulverized the entire waterfront and a half-mile swath of Commercial Street, where the tank had been located. This comprehensive and well-researched account of that tragedy is a gripping tale show more of those whose lives were snuffed out and of those who survived but suffered the ill effects for the remainder of their days. Author Stephen Puleo has written a clear and well-organized account of the flood in this book that reads like a novel but is all too true. He gives an overview of the history of that time period, of the politics and the anarchists who made headlines, of the flood itself, and of the trial that ensued. It’s a tragedy that changed lives, but it also changed laws and the way big business is viewed by society. Puleo has captured the heart of the neighborhood and the horror of the disaster waiting to unfold in this compelling read. show less

In January 1919, an enormous molasses tank on the Boston waterfront burst, and unleashed a flood of molasses on one of the most congested sections of the city.

"Molasses flood" sounds like a joke. It sounds funny. It was January. We all know the expression, "as slow as cold molasses."

Twenty-one people died. 150 were injured, many of them very seriously, resulting in life-long crippling problems that either ended or seriously hampered their ability to work. Also, hundreds of working horses show more were killed by the molasses flood--some directly, some shot afterwards, because there was no way to extract them from the molasses before they would be suffocated by the weight of it.

Children died. Workers died. Houses, businesses, and the local fire station were crushed, shattered, knocked off their foundations and nearly swept into the harbor.

It was an enormous tragedy.

An important part of Puleo's book is making abundantly clear that it shouldn't have happened. Despite the company's claims, there was no bomb, no "evilly disposed persons," no outside malicious action. But neither was it "just" an accident.

Molasses wasn't just sweetener, or an important raw material for making rum. It was also an important source of industrial alcohol, used in, among other things, munitions. This became critically important with the start of World War One. This resulted in the new Boston tank being built in a great rush, to cash in on the war, under the direction of--an accountant. A man with no experience in construction of any kind, who was under pressure from his bosses to get it done by the last day of 1915 so that it could receive a delivery and spare the company the need to buy molasses for processing. Puleo lays out for us, in highly readable fashion, all the mistakes in construction, the warnings from an ordinary employee about the signs of structural unsoundness, the effects of the disaster, and the subsequent legal case. The company strongly pushed the theory that anarchists planted a bomb in the tank, and this wasn't, in the context of the time, as crazy an idea as it might sound. Anarchists, and anarchist violence, was a significant factor at the time. There just wasn't any supporting evidence for an anarchist having planted a bomb in this molasses tank, and there was a lot of evidence of sloppy construction and ignored warnings of structural unsoundness.

The molasses flood was a major disaster for Boston, but by itself, it wasn't a major, history-changing moment. However, it connected and interacted with a lot of other forces at work at the time. World War One, Prohibition, laissez-faire capitalism (Puleo doesn't use the phrase, but describes it at work), the assimilation, or lack thereof, of the Italian immigrants, anarchist political activity, the Sacco and Vanzetti case...all played a role in what happened. And the legal case over the molasses flood, which became, in practice even if not officially, the largest class action lawsuit thus far.

It's a fascinating story, and well, even if not perfectly, told.

Recommended.

I borrowed this book from my local library. show less