The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives by Simon, Bryant

The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives

Captivating and brilliantly conceived. . . [The Hamlet Fire] will provide readers with insights into our current...
BD$40.26 BMD
BD$40.26 BMD
SKU: 9781620972380
Product Type: Books
Please hurry! Only 0 left in stock
Author: Bryant Simon
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Subtotal: BD$40.26
10 customers are viewing this product
The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives by Simon, Bryant

The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives

BD$40.26

The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives

BD$40.26
Author: Bryant Simon
Format: Hardcover
Language: English

Captivating and brilliantly conceived. . . [The Hamlet Fire] will provide readers with insights into our current national politics.
--The Washington Post

A gifted writer (Chicago Tribune) uses a long forgotten factory fire in small-town North Carolina to show how cut-rate food and labor have become the new American norm

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 searching for cheap labor with little or almost no official oversight. One of these businesses was Imperial Food Products. The company paid its workers a dollar above the minimum wage to stand in pools of freezing water for hours on end, scraping gobs of fat off frozen chicken breasts before they got dipped in batter and fried into golden brown nuggets and tenders. If a worker complained about the heat or the cold or missed a shift to take care of their children or went to the bathroom too often they were fired. But they kept coming back to work because Hamlet was a place where jobs were scarce. Then, on the morning of September 3, 1991, the day after Labor Day, this factory that had never been inspected burst into flame. Twenty-five people--many of whom were black women with children, living on their own--perished that day behind the plant's locked and bolted doors.

Eighty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, industrial disasters were supposed to have been a thing of the past. After spending several years talking to local residents, state officials, and survivors of the fire, award-winning historian Bryant Simon has written a vivid, potent, and disturbing social autopsy of this town, this factory, and this time that shows how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was bound for tragedy.



Author: Bryant Simon
Publisher: New Press
Published: 09/05/2017
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.40w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781620972380


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2017
Publishers Weekly 07/31/2017
Booklist 08/01/2017 pg. 17

About the Author
Bryant Simon is a professor of history at Temple University. He is the author of Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America, and Everything but the Coffee: Learning About America from Starbucks. His work and commentary have been featured in the New Yorker, the Washington Post, the New Republic, and numerous other outlets. He lives in Philadelphia.

Returns Policy

You may return most new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).

You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).

If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the "Complete Orders" link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.

Shipping

We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.

When you place an order, we will estimate shipping and delivery dates for you based on the availability of your items and the shipping options you choose. Depending on the shipping provider you choose, shipping date estimates may appear on the shipping quotes page.

Please also note that the shipping rates for many items we sell are weight-based. The weight of any such item can be found on its detail page. To reflect the policies of the shipping companies we use, all weights will be rounded up to the next full pound.

Related Products

Recently Viewed Products