‘Uprising’ is a beautiful introduction to a historical breakthrough

    As someone who never enjoyed a single history class, even hearing the description “historical fiction” usually deters me from reading a book. Since the spirit of Resolution Reads is facing a New Year’s challenge, however, I went out of my comfort zone and checked out “Uprising” by Margaret Peterson Haddix.
    I’d never read one of her books, and I’d never heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that “Uprising” was based on, but this read paid off. In fact, I found the story compelling enough that I went on to do some nonfiction reading to learn even more about the fire. That’s right, I learned about history by choice.
    The novel follows the lives of three teenagers in New York City in the early 20th century. Though the book is directed toward teen readers as well, the lives of the characters hardly look like something a modern teen could relate to. Bella is newest to the city. She immigrated all alone from rural Italy so she could send money home to her starving family. Yetta had been in New York longer, but she was a Jewish immigrant from Russia.
    Both girls worked in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, where they faced trying conditions and often earned less than a dollar a day. There was little they could do when their bosses decided to pay them less than they were promised. A third teen, Jane, came from an extremely wealthy family and probably lived a life as different from the factory workers as a modern reader does.
    Life, in the unexpected ways that it tends to, brought the three girls together despite their incredibly different backgrounds. They faced the basic obstacle of trying to communicate with a combination of Yiddish, Italian and English, and Haddix portrays that struggle masterfully.
    Beyond that, they navigate the multitude of challenges that arise from poverty. Again, Haddix illustrates a level of destitution that many readers probably have a hard time even imagining. One character’s enthusiasm about adding a second outfit to her wardrobe is moving enough to make just about any privileged person stop for a bit of introspection.
    For people just going about their lives in 2018 (or 2007 when it was published), “Uprising” manages to be a kindling, using fiction to inspire a look toward America’s history.

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