AP US History: Summer Reading Assignment
Chapter Summary Questions for Triangle: The Fire that Changed America
Directions: Use these questions as a guideline when reading the book. This is the information you will be tested/quizzed on when you return to school. Maintenance of a journal/notebook with the answers to these questions and other important facts is recommended. Answers should be handwritten.
Prologue
1.When did the Triangle fire occur? How many people died in it?
2. How was the Triangle fire different from other workplace disasters of the time period?
Chapter 1
3. Why was Charley Rose hired to beat up Clara Lemlich? What was so “dangerous” about her?
4. Lemlich had a pretty well paying job so why did she find factory life “unbearable”?
5. Why did many Eastern European Jews come to the US between 1881 and the end of WWI?
6. What was achieved by NY waistmakers from the summer of 1909 to the end of 1911?
7. Describe the difficulties of tenement life.
8. Compare and contrast progressivism and Tammany Hall.
9. Describe the Tammany style of politics.
10. Describe some of the “charity” work Tammany braves did in order to get votes. As a result, how did immigrants view Tammany Hall?
11. Who was Charles Murphy? What was the reaction to him at the parade?
12. Why was Tammany Hall in danger of losing its base among the city’s poor immigrants at the turn of the century? How did Tammany leaders try to win over the Jewish community? Did it work?
Chapter 2
13. Who were the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company? How were their backgrounds similar to their workers?
14. What were the reasons the garment industry grew in the mid to late 1800s?
15. Why was the shirtwaist such a revolutionary fashion sensation?
16. Describe the benefits of working in factories rather than tenement sweatshops.
17. What were two drawbacks of the new factories?
18. Describe the tactics used by the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company to hurt unions.
Chapter 3
19. What role did Samuel Gompers and Clara Lemlich play at the union meeting in the Great Hall at Cooper Union?
20. The factory owners took a tough stance against the strikers. Provide some evidence of this.
21. Why did many people like Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont become involved in the shirtwaist strike?
22. Describe the various ways that progressives like Anne Morgan helped the strikers.
23. Why did some radical strike supporters resent the arrival of rich women to the strike?
24. For what reasons did many progressive sympathizers of the strike start to view their radical allies as too radical?
25. What was the deal that the Local 25 eventually accepted? Do you believe they really won the strike?
Chapter 4
26. Why did many Jews leave Russia in the early 1900s?
27. Describe Rosie Freedman’s journey to the US and her experience at Ellis Island.
28. Why did many Italians come to the US in the early 1900s?
29. How was Michela Marciano’s trip to the US different from Rosie Freedman’s?
30. What were the major jobs that women had in American cities?
Chapter 5
31. What was the cause of the Triangle fire? Why did it get so out of control so quickly?
32. What were the mistakes made in warning other floors about the fire? Discuss mistakes Dinah Lipschitz and Mary Alter made.
33. What were the problems with the fire hoses, the doors, and the fire escapes in the factory?
34. Where the owners inside the factory at the time of the fire? What did they do?
35. What was the innovation at the Triangle Company that made the “blaze so explosive”?
Chapter 6
36. Why couldn’t people escape from the Washington Street exit on the 9th floor?
37. Describe the problems with the Asch Building fire escape and the steel shutters.
38. Describe some of the things the desperate workers did in order to escape the fire.
39. Why does the author say that “the right fire at the right time was good for business”?
Chapter 7
40. Who was Charles Whitman and why did he want to get involved in the Triangle case?
41. What were the two possible ways that Whitman could respond to the fire? Which response did he choose?
42. How were the bodies set up for identification and viewing?
43. Why did Whitman shift his position regarding the Triangle case? What role did William Randolph Hearst’s newspaper the American play in this?
Chapter 8
44. How did tactics for tackling social problems change from the 1800s to the 1900s?
45. What did Frances Perkins do to help the penniless woman and her two starving children?
46. Wagner and Smith were at one time controlled by Tammany Hall but they went on to become great political leaders. What positions would they hold later in their political careers?
47. Why did the hours bill that Perkins was fighting for die?
48. Why did Smith suggest that Perkins allow a commission of legislators to investigate factory conditions and recommend laws?
49. How did Tammany Hall change in the two years between the shirtwaist strike and the Factory Commission?
50. What new laws were passed in 1913 as a result of the work done by the Factory Commission in 1912?
Chapter 9
51. Why was the door to Washington Place on the 9th floor of the Asch building locked? How did prosecutors plan to use that information in their attack?
52. Describe Harris and Blanck’s lawyer, Max Steuer.
53. What rituals and rules were part of Steuer’s courtroom persona?
54. How did Judge Crain act “in favor of the owners”?
55. Why was Kate Alterman an important witness for Bostwick? How did Steuer try to discredit her? Did it work?
56. What were the major themes of Steuer’s case?
57. What instruction did Crain give to the jurors that Steuer liked?
58. How did Crain’s experience as a tenement house commissioner effect his actions in the Triangle case?
59. What was the court’s decision in the Triangle fire case? Did the verdict surprise you?
Epilogue
60. How did the Triangle fire change urban Democrats?
61. What political positions did Wagner and Perkins have during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency?
62. Why was Blanck arrested in 1913? What was the result?