Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Radium Girls by Kate Moore - Wait list

The Radium Girls

The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

by Kate Moore
Angela Brazil
Audiobook
0 of 10 copies available
Place a hold Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
0 of 10 copies available
1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous-the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls. As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. The very thing that had made them feel alive-their work-was in fact slowly killing them: they had been poisoned by the radium paint. Yet their employers denied all responsibility. And so, in the face of unimaginable suffering-in the face of death-these courageous women refused to accept their fate quietly, and instead became determined to fight for justice. Drawing on previously unpublished sources-including diaries, letters, and court transcripts, as well as original interviews with the women's relatives-The Radium Girls is an intimate narrative account of an unforgettable true story. It is the powerful tale of a group of ordinary women from the Roaring Twenties, who themselves learned how to roar.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    May 2, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781681684222
      • File size: 457309 KB
      • Duration: 15:52:43

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 980
    • Text Difficulty: 5-7

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This audiobook tells the tragic story of the women who worked with the new wonder element, radium, ushering in a new era for American businesses, and paying for it with their lives. Narrator Angela Brazil has a lively, clear voice, excellent diction, and a great sense of pacing. She maintains her energy throughout this impressive history and varies her approach to keep the story interesting and approachable. For most of the book, though, Brazil sounds as though she's announcing rather than simply narrating. It would have been better to dial back some of her energy and focus on phrasing as opposed to pronouncing every individual word with precision. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 20, 2017
      British ghostwriter Moore traces the lives of more than a dozen American women who were employed as luminous watch-dial painters as early as 1917. She tells how these women, some barely in their 20s, were enchanted by high pay and the allure of the paint’s luminescent substance: radium. Carefully researched, the work will stun readers with its descriptions of the glittering artisans who, oblivious to health dangers, twirled camel-hair brushes to fine points using their mouths, a technique called lip-pointing. By the end of 1918, one out of six American soldiers owned a luminous watch, but the women had begun losing their teeth and entire pieces of their jaws. Moore describes the gruesome effects of radiation exposure on these women’s bodies, and she spares nothing in relaying the intense emotional suffering of their friends and families during subsequent medical investigations and court battles. In giving voice to so many victims, Moore overburdens the story line, which culminates with a 1938 headline trial during which a former employee of the Radium Dial Company collapsed on the stand and had to testify from bed. Moore details what was a “ground-breaking, law-changing, and life-saving accomplishment” for worker’s rights; it lends an emotionally charged ending to a long, sad book.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:980
  • Text Difficulty:5-7

Loading