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Shortly after noon on January 15, 1919, a 50-foot-tall steel
tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapsed
on Boston’s waterfront, disgorging its contents in a
15-foot-high wave of molasses that traveled at 35 miles per
hour. The Great Boston Molasses Flood claimed the lives of
21 people and caused widespread destruction. For the first
time, the story of the flood is told here in its full historical
context, from the tank’s construction in 1915 through
the multiyear lawsuit that followed the disaster. Dark
Tide uses the gripping drama of the flood to examine
the sweeping changes brought about by World War I, Prohibition,
the anarchist movement, immigration, and the expanding role
of big business in society. It’s also a chronicle of
the courage of ordinary people, from the firemen caught in
an unimaginable catastrophe to the soldier-lawyer who presided
over the lawsuit with heroic impartiality.
www.JDRF.org.
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