Book Beginnings on Friday: Triangle

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme originally hosted by Katy from A Few More Pages but now hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading.

Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David von Drehle

"Burglary was the usual occupation of Lawrence Ferrone, also known as Charles Rose."

This is an odd beginning for a book about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, but the author is setting up the background about the conditions of work at the time, including that the factory owners would hire gangsters to beat up strikers, in this instance a particular instigator and organizer named Clara Lemlich.