Dark Tide-Molasses and So Much More

Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 

by Stephen Puleo

What an enlightening read!  I must confess that the reason I decided to read Dark Tide in the first place was because of the sheer comic image I had in my head when I first heard about the event.  I mean, it was a Flood of Molasses.  How could cold, "slow as molasses" molasses devastate anything?  Well folks, it did.  

On a cold January afternoon in 1919, a 50 foot steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst on Boston's waterfront travelling at an initial speed of 35 miles per hour, destroying homes and businesses in its wake.  Acting like quicksand, it pulled its victims under, drowning them in thick darkness.  Unthinkable.  

The initial events all happened quickly, and would perhaps have been lost to history were it not for this book by Stephen Puleo.  Uncovering transcripts from the ensuing trial to determine fault, Puleo is able to provide the reader with heart wrenching testimonies of eye-witnesses, surviving victims, and experts of the time in engineering and architecture.  There are even letters in the afterward from descendants of those affected by the tragedy.

Beyond the fascinating telling of the story of the tank and its contents (I learned a lot about the uses for molasses aside from sweetening ), Puleo has made this book into a history of the times in the Boston community, and the U.S. in general.  He covers issues pertaining to U.S. involvement and military entrance into World War I, prejudices against Italian immigrants (especially southern Italians and Sicilians),  molasses' role in munitions-and later in prohibition, northern slave trade, the influenza epidemic, anarchists of the time and so, so much more.  

Though my motivation in reading this book was quite flippant, I have learned so much from it, and I'm glad it came my way.  I highly recommend it to any history buff, or anyone interested in an unusual, heartbreaking story.