The Hamlet Fire
Author:
Publisher:
The University of North Carolina Press
Pub. Date:
2020
Language:
English
Description
For decades, the small, quiet town of Hamlet, North Carolina, thrived thanks to the railroad. But by the 1970s, it had become a postindustrial backwater, a magnet for businesses in search of cheap labor and almost no oversight. Imperial Food Products was one of those businesses. The company set up shop in Hamlet in the 1980s. Workers who complained about low pay and hazardous working conditions at the plant were silenced or fired. But jobs were scarce in town, so workers kept coming back, and the company continued to operate with impunity. Then, on the morning of September 3, 1991, the never-inspected chicken-processing plant a stone's throw from Hamlet's city hall burst into flames. Twenty-five people perished that day behind the plant's locked and bolted doors. It remains one of the deadliest accidents ever in the history of the modern American food industry. Eighty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, industrial disasters were supposed to have been a thing of the past in the United States. However, as award-winning historian Bryant Simon shows, the pursuit of cheap food merged with economic decline in small towns across the South and the nation to devalue laborers and create perilous working conditions. The Hamlet fire and its aftermath reveal the social costs of antiunionism, lax regulations, and ongoing racial discrimination. Using oral histories, contemporary news coverage, and state records, Simon has constructed a vivid, potent, and disturbing social autopsy of this town, this factory, and this time that exposes how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was destined to result in tragedy.
More Copies In LINK+
Loading LINK+ Copies...
Subjects
Subjects
More Details
Contributors:
ISBN:
9781469661377
Reviews from GoodReads
Loading GoodReads Reviews.
Staff View
Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 10fffe00-6534-6877-a261-806a5c208d15 |
---|---|
Grouping Title | hamlet fire |
Grouping Author | bryant simon |
Grouping Category | book |
Grouping Language | English (eng) |
Last Grouping Update | 2023-11-23 02:33:59AM |
Last Indexed | 2024-04-28 05:43:52AM |
Solr Fields
accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
author
Simon, Bryant
author2-role
hoopla digital
author_display
Simon, Bryant
display_description
For decades, the small, quiet town of Hamlet, North Carolina, thrived thanks to the railroad. But by the 1970s, it had become a postindustrial backwater, a magnet for businesses in search of cheap labor and almost no oversight. Imperial Food Products was one of those businesses. The company set up shop in Hamlet in the 1980s. Workers who complained about low pay and hazardous working conditions at the plant were silenced or fired. But jobs were scarce in town, so workers kept coming back, and the company continued to operate with impunity. Then, on the morning of September 3, 1991, the never-inspected chicken-processing plant a stone's throw from Hamlet's city hall burst into flames. Twenty-five people perished that day behind the plant's locked and bolted doors. It remains one of the deadliest accidents ever in the history of the modern American food industry. Eighty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, industrial disasters were supposed to have been a thing of the past in the United States. However, as award-winning historian Bryant Simon shows, the pursuit of cheap food merged with economic decline in small towns across the South and the nation to devalue laborers and create perilous working conditions. The Hamlet fire and its aftermath reveal the social costs of antiunionism, lax regulations, and ongoing racial discrimination. Using oral histories, contemporary news coverage, and state records, Simon has constructed a vivid, potent, and disturbing social autopsy of this town, this factory, and this time that exposes how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was destined to result in tragedy.
format_catalog
eBook
format_category_catalog
eBook
id
10fffe00-6534-6877-a261-806a5c208d15
isbn
9781469661377
last_indexed
2024-04-28T12:43:52.331Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
primary_isbn
9781469661377
publishDate
2020
publisher
The University of North Carolina Press
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Electronic books
title_display
The Hamlet Fire
title_full
The Hamlet Fire [electronic resource] / Bryant Simon
title_short
The Hamlet Fire
topic_facet
Electronic books
Solr Details Tables
item_details
Bib Id | Item Id | Shelf Loc | Call Num | Format | Format Category | Num Copies | Is Order Item | Is eContent | eContent Source | eContent URL | Detailed Status | Last Checkin | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
hoopla:MWT13281397 | Online Hoopla Collection | Online Hoopla | eBook | eBook | 1 | false | true | Hoopla | https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/13281397?utm_source=MARC&Lid=hh4435 | Available Online |
record_details
Bib Id | Format | Format Category | Edition | Language | Publisher | Publication Date | Physical Description | Abridged |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
hoopla:MWT13281397 | eBook | eBook | English | The University of North Carolina Press | 2020 | 1 online resource (320 pages) |
scoping_details_catalog
Bib Id | Item Id | Grouped Status | Status | Locally Owned | Available | Holdable | Bookable | In Library Use Only | Library Owned | Holdable PTypes | Bookable PTypes | Local Url |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
hoopla:MWT13281397 | Available Online | Available Online | false | true | false | false | false | false |