David Conrad-Pérez - "Fire in the Heart of the City" - Lisa Yun Lee
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David Conrad-Pérez will discuss "Fire in the Heart of the City: The Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy and the Origins of Modern Charity." He will be joined in conversation by Lisa Yun Lee. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.
RSVP HERE
About the book: In American history, few tragedies have been as consequential―and as enduringly misunderstood―as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. Long remembered as a turning point in the struggle for labor protections, "Fire in the Heart of the City" shows how the fire also helped transform another cornerstone of modern American life: the rise of modern charity.
Set in early twentieth-century New York, the book tells the extraordinary story of what happened when a catastrophic fire in Greenwich Village threw Adolph Ochs, the ambitious new publisher of the New York Times, and Rose Schneiderman, a defiant young labor organizer, into a momentous struggle over who should organize the city's response: a rising charity sector led by wealthy financiers and civic elites, or the reform-minded unions and activists of Lower Manhattan.
Drawing on newly released archival documents, interviews with the descendants of Times publisher Adolph Ochs and New York labor organizers, previously confidential reports, and long-overlooked private diaries and correspondence, historian and former journalist David Conrad-Pérez offers a striking new account of the disaster and its aftermath. He shows how a handful of charities on the brink of irrelevance were suddenly recast as New York's best answer to the social and economic conditions the fire laid bare―a watershed moment in the rise of modern charity and elite authority over social welfare in the United States. A deeply researched and absorbing work of narrative history, "Fire in the Heart of the City" offers a major reinterpretation of one of the most important urban disasters in American history, revealing how a single catastrophe helped reshape not only the politics of labor, but also the moral and institutional foundations of modern American charity.
About the author: David Conrad-Pérez is a historian and former journalist whose work examines the forces that shape the media, philanthropy, and public life. He serves as research director for the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University. A former producer for On the Media and Public Radio International’s The World, he has also written for the New York Times, Reuters, and Columbia Journalism Review. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.
About the interlocutor: Lisa Yun Lee is a member of the Art History, Museum and Exhibition Studies, and Gender and Women's Studies faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Lisa is also the Executive Director of the National Public Housing Museum, the nation’s first cultural institution committed to preserving and interpreting the history of public housing and propelling housing as a human right. She is currently working on a monograph about teaching Jane Addams for Teachers College Press. Lisa has published a book on Frankfurt School philosopher Theodor Adorno titled "Dialectics of the Body: Corporeality in the Philosophy of Theodor Adorno" (Routledge, 2014), and researches and writes about museums and diversity, cultural and environmental sustainability, historic preservation, and spaces for fostering radically democratic practices. Lisa received her BA in Religion from Bryn Mawr College, and a PhD in German Studies from Duke University. She also teaches with the Prison Neighborhood Arts Project in Stateville Prison. Lisa was appointed in 2020 by Governor JB Pritzer to serve on the Illinois State Museum Board, and served as a Co-Chair of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Arts & Culture Transition Committee. She was recently appointed to the Advisory Committee for the city of Chicago’s racial healing and historical reckoning project to assess memorials, monuments, and other public art. Lisa also serves on the Ms. Magazine Advisory Board, and the boards of 3Arts, and the Field Foundation.
RSVP HERE
About the book: In American history, few tragedies have been as consequential―and as enduringly misunderstood―as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. Long remembered as a turning point in the struggle for labor protections, "Fire in the Heart of the City" shows how the fire also helped transform another cornerstone of modern American life: the rise of modern charity.
Set in early twentieth-century New York, the book tells the extraordinary story of what happened when a catastrophic fire in Greenwich Village threw Adolph Ochs, the ambitious new publisher of the New York Times, and Rose Schneiderman, a defiant young labor organizer, into a momentous struggle over who should organize the city's response: a rising charity sector led by wealthy financiers and civic elites, or the reform-minded unions and activists of Lower Manhattan.
Drawing on newly released archival documents, interviews with the descendants of Times publisher Adolph Ochs and New York labor organizers, previously confidential reports, and long-overlooked private diaries and correspondence, historian and former journalist David Conrad-Pérez offers a striking new account of the disaster and its aftermath. He shows how a handful of charities on the brink of irrelevance were suddenly recast as New York's best answer to the social and economic conditions the fire laid bare―a watershed moment in the rise of modern charity and elite authority over social welfare in the United States. A deeply researched and absorbing work of narrative history, "Fire in the Heart of the City" offers a major reinterpretation of one of the most important urban disasters in American history, revealing how a single catastrophe helped reshape not only the politics of labor, but also the moral and institutional foundations of modern American charity.
About the author: David Conrad-Pérez is a historian and former journalist whose work examines the forces that shape the media, philanthropy, and public life. He serves as research director for the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University. A former producer for On the Media and Public Radio International’s The World, he has also written for the New York Times, Reuters, and Columbia Journalism Review. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.
About the interlocutor: Lisa Yun Lee is a member of the Art History, Museum and Exhibition Studies, and Gender and Women's Studies faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Lisa is also the Executive Director of the National Public Housing Museum, the nation’s first cultural institution committed to preserving and interpreting the history of public housing and propelling housing as a human right. She is currently working on a monograph about teaching Jane Addams for Teachers College Press. Lisa has published a book on Frankfurt School philosopher Theodor Adorno titled "Dialectics of the Body: Corporeality in the Philosophy of Theodor Adorno" (Routledge, 2014), and researches and writes about museums and diversity, cultural and environmental sustainability, historic preservation, and spaces for fostering radically democratic practices. Lisa received her BA in Religion from Bryn Mawr College, and a PhD in German Studies from Duke University. She also teaches with the Prison Neighborhood Arts Project in Stateville Prison. Lisa was appointed in 2020 by Governor JB Pritzer to serve on the Illinois State Museum Board, and served as a Co-Chair of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Arts & Culture Transition Committee. She was recently appointed to the Advisory Committee for the city of Chicago’s racial healing and historical reckoning project to assess memorials, monuments, and other public art. Lisa also serves on the Ms. Magazine Advisory Board, and the boards of 3Arts, and the Field Foundation.
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