Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 - Historical Nonfiction Book | True Story of Boston Disaster | Perfect for History Buffs & Book Clubs

We learned tidbits about the "molassacre" from a bus tour guide on our trip to Boston in 2018. He off-handedly recommend this book so I ordered it when we got home. What a fascinating story!I really enjoyed this book. It covers so much, from the history of the molasses trade (including how pivotal it was to slavery in the US), to presidential campaigns of that time, our involvement in WWI, the labor tensions and "Big Business" climate and the anarchist activity (including the trial and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti). I learned a ton and developed a wider context for the period of time between about 1915 and 1930. It even had some interesting overlap with what I had read recently in the Jungle.There were extensive accounts of personal histories and very detailed backgrounds of the political, geographical and cultural situation of that time, including some fun facts (for example, that Harding was the first US president to arrive at his inauguration in an automobile instead of horse-drawn carriage, and what that signified for the automotive industry). I was fascinated with this background information and thought the author did a phenomenal job with setting the stage and tying together so many different aspects of the story.Puleo is a great writer and I was easily engrossed in the many aspects relating to this event. His witty, compelling and colorful writing turned dry facts into a very engaging, personal narrative about an event that I had never heard of before our trip and demonstrated connections between it and so many other events and perspectives from that time and beyond.I think my favorite part of the book was Part 3, in which the author recounts the details of the court case against the US Industrial Alcohol Company. Using unearthed official court records, he was able to quote extensively from the leading lawyers, witnesses and the auditor of the case, Hugh W. Ogden. It was more interesting than (and often as dramatic as) a Law and Order episode.The author goes into great detail in a "bibliographic essay" in the back of the book about his sources and the dozens of books one could read for more information. His research is very impressive and I really appreciated the effort he took to show where he got his sources and how he applied them.This is a fine example of taking one event and telling its story in such a way that educates the reader on that event plus all kinds of peripheral subjects, fostering an interest in and excitement for learning itself. This book has prompted interest for me in several different areas for further reading and I'm grateful for the author's extremely well-done work!