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

Description: The Hamlet Fire by Bryant Simon 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 FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Previous books have gained major review attention: Bryant Simons work has been featured in the New Yorker, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Phoenix and AP. He has done dozens of national and local radio interviews, and appeared on BBC, CNN, HBO, Nightline, and Dateline NBC., and NewRepublic.com this year. His research into the fire at Hamlet have already aroused the interest of the local media in North Carolina. Bryant Simon is a witty and charismatic public speaker who addresses academic conferences nationally and globally. He is a member of the Southern Historical Association, Organization of American History Southern Labor History Association and Urban History Association. He has earned awards and honors from the Fulbright Commission, Humboldt Foundation, Urban History Association, Organization of American Historians, and the Smithsonian Institution. Author Biography 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. Review Praise for Hamlet Fire:"A multidimensional volume about a fatal 1991 fire at a chicken processing plant in North Carolina [that] connects the disaster in Hamlet to increasing consumer demand for cheap goods and cites disasters in other industries also driven by low prices. The Hamlet tragedy was not an isolated incident, Simon reminds readers, but part of a wider system of profit-driven labor exploitation."—Publishers Weekly (starred)"Engaging and humanizing . . . [Simon] uses the horrific event of a devastating accident at a chicken-processing plant in rural North Carolina to examine the consequences of the modern American convenience diet, where everything is expendable."—Booklist"A vivid, highly disturbing narrative with relevance to current discussions of economic inequality and workplace safety."—Kirkus Reviews"In haunting and powerful prose, historian Bryant Simon lays bare just how costly it really is, just how ugly it truly is, when Americans insist on cheap. As his meticulously researched examination of the 1991 Hamlet fire makes so painfully clear, real people—overwhelmingly poor and disproportionately black people—pay a high price indeed for this nations insatiable desire for cheap food and cheap government. But thanks to Simons careful reconstruction of the forces and circumstances that led so many to suffer in this one tiny North Carolina town, as well as his searing analysis of why those who lived and worked there mattered so little, readers are left with only one conclusion: America finally must commit itself to decent wages, safe workplaces, sufficient health care, and everything else that human beings need. And, if that costs us all a bit more, so be it."—Heather Ann Thompson, author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize for History "Bryant Simon plunges into the horror of an industrial fire and emerges with a gripping tale of capitalism gone wrong. Sifting through the wreckage, he unearths story after story of the unsustainable cost of cheap: a reckless economy, a cut-rate government, factory food, and disposable lives. Simons forensics are written with force, clarity, and gripping detail. The Hamlet Fire is a heartbreaking history of the hollowing out of the American dream."—Jefferson Cowie, author of Stayin Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class "What appears cheap comes at an expensive cost—often life itself if life itself is worth valuing. But lives in the United States—especially poor Black lives—are as cheap as the food and the government that is not sustaining those lives, Bryant Simon reveals in absorbing prose and striking analysis. The Hamlet Fire presents the smoldering death day of those twenty-five small town North Carolinians not as an industrial accident. Simon heroically presents this tragedy as a regularity in the unknown life of present-day industrial America where `cheap lives lavishly and valued life is dead. The Hamlet Fire is an oracle."—Ibram X. Kendi, author of Stamped from the Beginning, winner of the 2016 National Book Award for nonfiction"Bryant Simons The Hamlet Fire is a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism that is steeped in economic history and cultural theory. Its also the story of a community thats fallen through the cracks of the prelapsarian American Dream, a community of people who read like tragic characters from a literary novel. This is a study of what happens when generational poverty meets capitalist greed, but its also a testament to the strength of the American fabric that binds us all."—Wiley Cash, author of A Land More Kind Than Home and This Dark Road to Mercy Long Description For decades the small, quiet town of Hamlet, North Carolina thrived thanks to the railroad. But by the 1980s, it had become post-industrial backwater, a magnet for businesses looking for cheap labor with little or almost no official oversight. One of these businesses was Imperial Foods, which paid its workers a dollar or so above the minimum wage to stand in pools of freezing water for hours on end, scraping fat off frozen chicken breasts, and fined them if they went to the bathroom too many times during a shift. Then on the morning of September 3, 1991--the day after Labor Day--this factory that had never been inspected caught fire. Twenty-five workers--mostly single mothers, many of whom were black--perished behind locked 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 the survivors of the fire, award-winning historian Bryant Simon has written a vivid, potent, and riveting social autopsy of this place and of this time that shows how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was bound for tragedy. Review Quote Praise for Hamlet Fire: "This gripping and moving account of what happened and why goes far beyond what Morgan Spurlock attempts in his new documentary about the chicken industry." -- The Hollywood Reporter "It is testament to Simons reportorial instincts and research that he has found this sprawling. . . story in the detritus of that now-forgotten fire. His trail from that day through poultry economics to a core of new American values is captivating and brilliantly conceived, and will provide readers with insights into our current national politics." -- The Washington Post "[A] prodigiously researched and penetrating analysis." -- Minneapolis Star-Tribune "A multidimensional volume about a fatal 1991 fire at a chicken processing plant in North Carolina [that] connects the disaster in Hamlet to increasing consumer demand for cheap goods and cites disasters in other industries also driven by low prices. The Hamlet tragedy was not an isolated incident, Simon reminds readers, but part of a wider system of profit-driven labor exploitation." -- Publishers Weekly (starred) "Engaging and humanizing . . . [Simon] uses the horrific event of a devastating accident at a chicken-processing plant in rural North Carolina to examine the consequences of the modern American convenience diet, where everything is expendable." -- Booklist "A vivid, highly disturbing narrative with relevance to current discussions of economic inequality and workplace safety." -- Kirkus Reviews "In haunting and powerful prose, historian Bryant Simon lays bare just how costly it really is, just how ugly it truly is, when Americans insist on cheap. As his meticulously researched examination of the 1991 Hamlet fire makes so painfully clear, real people--overwhelmingly poor and disproportionately black people--pay a high price indeed for this nations insatiable desire for cheap food and cheap government. But thanks to Simons careful reconstruction of the forces and circumstances that led so many to suffer in this one tiny North Carolina town, as well as his searing analysis of why those who lived and worked there mattered so little, readers are left with only one conclusion: America finally must commit itself to decent wages, safe workplaces, sufficient health care, and everything else that human beings need. And, if that costs us all a bit more, so be it." -- Heather Ann Thompson, author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize for History "Bryant Simon plunges into the horror of an industrial fire and emerges with a gripping tale of capitalism gone wrong. Sifting through the wreckage, he unearths story after story of the unsustainable cost of cheap: a reckless economy, a cut-rate government, factory food, and disposable lives. Simons forensics are written with force, clarity, and gripping detail. The Hamlet Fire is a heartbreaking history of the hollowing out of the American dream." -- Jefferson Cowie, author of Stayin Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class "What appears cheap comes at an expensive cost--often life itself if life itself is worth valuing. But lives in the United States--especially poor Black lives--are as cheap as the food and the government that is not sustaining those lives, Bryant Simon reveals in absorbing prose and striking analysis. The Hamlet Fire presents the smoldering death day of those twenty-five small town North Carolinians not as an industrial accident. Simon heroically presents this tragedy as a regularity in the unknown life of present-day industrial America where cheap lives lavishly and valued life is dead. The Hamlet Fire is an oracle." -- Ibram X. Kendi, author of Stamped from the Beginning, winner of the 2016 National Book Award for nonfiction "Bryant Simons The Hamlet Fire is a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism that is steeped in economic history and cultural theory. Its also the story of a community thats fallen through the cracks of the prelapsarian American Dream, a community of people who read like tragic characters from a literary novel. This is a study of what happens when generational poverty meets capitalist greed, but its also a testament to the strength of the American fabric that binds us all." -- Wiley Cash, author of A Land More Kind Than Home and This Dark Road to Mercy Description for Sales People Previous books have gained major review attention: Bryant Simons work has been featured in the New Yorker, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Phoenix and AP. He has done dozens of national and local radio interviews, and appeared on BBC, CNN, HBO, Nightline, and Dateline NBC. An engaged public intellectual who contributes to national media: His op-eds have appeared in the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times (Room for Debate forum), Philadelphia Inquirer, The Root, and NewRepublic.com Go-to-person: Reporters from around the world contact Simon to comment on casinos, urban development, branding, and coffee culture. This last year he fielded media inquiries about Donald Trump and Atlantic City. In fact his work was cited on Fresh Air this year. His research into the fire at Hamlet have already aroused the interest of the local media in North Carolina. Speaking: Bryant Simon is a witty and charismatic public speaker who addresses academic conferences nationally and globally. Affiliations: He is a member of the Southern Historical Association, Organization of American History Southern Labor History Association and Urban History Association. He has earned awards and honors from the Fulbright Commission, Humboldt Foundation, Urban History Association, Organization of American Historians, and the Smithsonian Institution. Details ISBN1620972387 Author Bryant Simon Short Title HAMLET FIRE Language English ISBN-10 1620972387 ISBN-13 9781620972380 Format Hardcover Illustrations Yes Year 2017 Subtitle A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives Imprint The New Press Country of Publication United Kingdom NZ Release Date 2017-10-19 UK Release Date 2017-10-19 Pages 1 Publisher The New Press Publication Date 2017-10-19 DEWEY 363.11966493 Audience General AU Release Date 2018-01-01 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:137793720;

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