On March 12th, 2021, we had the honor and pleasure of having a guest speaker: Historian Warren Shaw, who was gracious enough to allow us to share a recording of his presentation about the history on New York and the United States.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 is well remembered for the gruesome fact that nearly 150 employees perished in just a few minutes. The Triangle Fire’s astonishingly far-reaching consequences are perhaps less widely understood, but it is clear that this terrible event was one of the hinges between the 19th Century and the modern era.
For New York City, the Fire led to almost revolutionary consequences in its physical and geographic organization. The Fire greatly accelerated the rise to political power for immigrants and their children, and gave rise to a whole series of profound policy changes that made up a large portion of FDR’s New Deal.
More than a century later, the example of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire offers powerful guidance for addressing our present-day crises of political power, social welfare policy and immigration.
Warren Shaw is a lawyer and New York City historian, and the son of two of the founders of the New York City Disability Rights movement, Mollie and Julius Shaw. His previous talks to the congregation about the Ashkenazi roots of the disability rights movement was given in October 2019, and about the first disability rights movement in NYC in April 2020. He has recently launched DisabilityHistoryNYC.com, covering the history of disability and disability activism in the City of New York.
Watch a recording of his presentation:
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