The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

Written by Kate Moore

Narrated by Angela Brazil

1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous—the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls.


As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. The very thing that had made them feel alive—their work—was in fact slowly killing them: they had been poisoned by the radium paint. Yet their employers denied all responsibility. And so, in the face of unimaginable suffering—in the face of death—these courageous women refused to accept their fate quietly, and instead became determined to fight for justice.


Drawing on previously unpublished sources—including diaries, letters, and court transcripts, as well as original interviews with the women's relatives—The Radium Girls is an intimate narrative account of an unforgettable true story. It is the powerful tale of a group of ordinary women from the Roaring Twenties, who themselves learned how to roar.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: May 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781681684222

Kate Moore

Kate Moore is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Radium Girls, which won the 2017 Goodreads Choice Award for Best History, was voted U.S. librarians’ favorite nonfiction book of 2017,and was named a Notable Nonfiction Book of 2018 by the American Library Association. A British writer based in London, Kate writes across a variety of genres and has had multiple titles on the Sunday Times bestseller list. She is passionate about politics, storytelling, and resurrecting forgotten heroes.

Reviews for The Radium Girls

[cassikins · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The stories of these young women were heart-wrenching. It is also why workplace regulations (OSHA) and the EPA are so very important. Very few employers will act on their own without a watchdog.

[melissa jackson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Outstanding! What a journey and heartbreaking victory. It’s baffling to see what money and power do to people.

[Shannon Durand · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A must read book for anyone who desires to learn from history.

[bogopea · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A heartbreaking and harrowing narrative of how big business conspired to kill females beginning in the 1910's. In several town in America, young females were hired to paint radium dials on watches and clocks, unaware of the dangers of radium on their bodies. The companies knew, even to the point of testing many of them, denying the women their own results and even went so far a to falsely claim that nothing harmful was found in their bodies.This did result, many years and deaths later, into enactment of better laws and the establishment of strict workplace safety regulations, but not before these women suffered unimaginable suffering and indignity.You won't read this book for the writing; however, you must read this book as an early example of industry taking advantage of innocent, minimum wage workers and putting innocent people at risk. Many years late, in 1991, the EPA ordered some of these business to "clean up" the sites where these factories stood, but only after these these radium-contaminated sites were found to cause increased incidents of cancer in those areas.

[Tiffani Smith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is not often that I cry while listening to audiobooks but this one had me welling up with tears multiple times. This story is both tragic and profound. It is hard to believe that these women suffered as they did and yet this goes to show just how little women were valued during that time. I highly recommend this book and will be singing its praises for the foreseeable future.

[April Davis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A heartbreaking, true story of these women using radium to help make watch dials and other items.

[Jess · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The only book of history I've ever read that made me cry more than once during it's journey. I've found myself emotional in the face of other tales of hardship, but this story - a true story - takes the cake for pure selfless courage in the face of horrifying pain and truly villainous opponents. We are indebted to these women, who fought not for their own safety, but for justice and the safety of others.

[Lisa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Harrowing, horrific, and fascinating. Told in a lot of their own words, too. Very interesting.

[trent lucas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I understand the author’s point in humanizing and detailing each of the girls and she does so to resounding effect, but I wish there were just a little less of that. Otherwise a fantastic book and extremely compelling story.

[Jessica Johnson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Intriguing as well as heartbreaking. So many lives lost because a company just didn't care about anything but making a profit. My heart hurts for the tragic lives lost to being exposed to Radium. Highly recommend!

[Betty Bennett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A tragic page in American history told with sensitivity for those who participated in the events. The names of the women whose stories are recounted here will never appear in history books, yet their contribution to our wellbeing is incalculable. Very well written. This author has earned a place in my to be followed list

[Cheyenne Smith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So good. What an eye opener. This should be mandatory reading in school.

[Teresa Treadwell Hanson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent! I feel like I felt the girls pain and it was very moving.

[Alana Gueutal · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a breathtaking read! I grew up hearing these woman’s stories from my mother, and always wanted to know more. More about the company and more importantly, the stories of the women themselves.
This book is an incredible read, bringing to life the stories of the women at the heart of the disaster. We get to know so many of them, their family, their hopes and dreams, and share in their horror and pain as their dreams are ripped away from them, and their bodies fail.
Even more horrific, is hearing how the company mishandled the entire situation, covering up their wrong doing and actively fighting to rip what remaining humanity these amazing women had.
An achingly beautiful book about the indomitable spirit of done remarkable women, offset by corporate negligence and greed, and how this story shaped our collective future. Highly recommended!

[Ruth Ann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great book. Haunting. Sad. Unbelievable. I knew nothing about radium painting or the girls who suffered the consequences. I feel a little but smarter. I think everyone should be aware of this so something like this never happens again.

[jessiqa_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Curies discovered radium in the late 19th Century. Although they noticed that the element had destructive properties, they and other scientists extolled its virtues to the degree that it was deemed perfectly safe. In the years before WWI, women in factories painted watch dials with radium. They used no protection because the factory bosses said it was perfectly safe. After all, it was used to kill cancer, so it must be healthy. So the young women painted their watch dials, keeping their paintbrushes to a point, by sucking them between their teeth. This was the standard practice for years and when women started exhibiting problems with their teeth, no one made the connection between their work with radium and their illnesses. This book follows the fates of these women in a very approachable way, making their stories personal. Moore used diaries, court transcripts, and letters, among other sources to create a vivid picture of the women who fought against corporate irresponsibility and won. I enjoyed the intimate portrait of the women involved and their lives, and it is always wonderful and important to highlight forgotten parts of history such as this. However, I will warn the reader that some of the descriptions of the women’s physical afflictions are on the graphic side.

[Becki Basley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The radium girls by kate moore
(Scribd)
The true story of the women who worked in a factory that used radium to make watch dials glow. Part of their job required them to put the paintbrush in their mouths to make the bristles on the brush have a fine point. Nearly all the girls developed horrific radium poisoning and they literally fought to their last breath to bring the company to justice and make them not only accountable but ensure a safe work environment for all.
This book is well researched. Highly recommend

[Anna · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Such a bore!!!! Despite the importance of the topic. Do not waste your time.

[GayLynn Willoughby · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow. Just, wow. Every word paints a picture. This book is written in a way that takes you by the hand and allows you to walk with these girls through their hopes and dreams, and tragedies. I couldn’t stop listening.

[Carlina I · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Terrible what the women went through. I tried very hard to fight back tries while reading this.

[djtimmy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’d heard the story on the internet but the book was recommended to me so read it anyways. Much better than expected and better than just knowing about the story of the radium girls. Powerful and sad.

[katiekrug · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An important and fascinating story that suffered from flawed writing.

[Deborah Smith-Arnous · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was riveting and important to read. It was very well researched. Thank you for your thoughtful work that informed me of the wonderful work of the girls who disclosed such awful company behavior.

[ShadeTreeReads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Damn that was a well written story of another effed up thing in American history. So glad my friend recommended this to me!

[Susan King · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good story which was unbelievable of all those girls went through
However gave it 4 stars due to being so long too many girls with more of same things happening to them

[Chance · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Oh my goodness ? if you don’t read this you will never read the best book EVER, I can’t even describe how amazing it was so READ IT NOW AND YOU WILL KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT! ?

[griffin_reads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There was a lot of information to process with this one. Moore helps the reader along by keeping it (mostly) chronological and telling you which city and year you are in at the start of each chapter, which I found super helpful. It was super heavy information, but Moore goes through it in depth, not shying away from the darker aspects of these women's illnesses. Overall, I quite liked the book and this will definitely be a topic I do more research on.

[spiffyhink · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My god, this book was a difficult read. In fact, although I found it gripping and finished it quickly, I did have to take a break about halfway through it because I found I was getting extremely frustrated and it was beginning to affect my mood. I’ve had my own run-ins with injustice and spent a good amount of time in court, and I am grateful that I was not there for the same reasons that these women were, because reading about their slow, painful deaths, was horrifying. They literally watched themselves fall apart, after being repeatedly lied to and mislead by the company they were working for.
And the extend to which they were mislead, which I was unaware of before diving into this book, went far beyond ignorance or minor transgressions. The Radium Dial company and others with them went out of their way to cover up years of scientific evidence proving that radium was poisonous, withhold the women’s medical records (I know the book refers to them as “girls” because it was appropriate for the times, but they were women, and that is how I prefer to label them), and even, in the case of one of the ladies, perform an illegal autopsy in which they destroyed the part of her body that would have been used as evidence (!!!). After the women and their families went directly to these cheats to ask for compensation for the upteenth time, I was internally yelling at them to start an educational campaign against them, or to start picketing, or something that would increase public pressure against them, but the times were different then. They did not have the same access to the public that we do now, and it was not normal to question one’s employer, especially if you were a young, unmarried woman.
I had not realized the impact this had on worker’s compensation rights in the U.S. until I reached the end of this book, and in fact I’m surprised that it’s not something that we’re more aware of generally these days. Most of us in the U.S. work, and thus have a very real interest in our own safety, even if we’re never told to put radioactive paint in our mouths on a daily basis. It is because of the women who fought that we mostly don’t have to worry about this (although there is mention that they tried this sort of B.S. again much later, in the 70s and were shut down for it. Greed never learns, I suppose).
I do agree with some of the other reviewers that Moore’s tendency to end everything on cliffhangers got very annoying after a while, but I pushed past it because the rest of the book was so good.

[yarncatsnbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Horrifying story of women put in danger, and refused treatment/compensation.

[muumuumousie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Heartbreaking and meticulously researched, this book makes for a powerful read. Moore covers a broad scope while still depicting certain historical characters in great detail. The book is highly readable and feels like fiction. I think that Moore, in a few places, tried a little too hard to make the book flow. For example, she tried to draw a parallel between the girls' plight and the Easter celebrations that were happening at the same time; she described Easter as Christ being "reborn." I get that she's being poetic, but it isn't a rebirth. It's a resurrection. There are a few other times when she'll add in details that seem impossible to verify. For example, one of the girls who died of radium poisoning was walking to work on a specific day and checked her watch so she wouldn't be late and stumbled but didn't think too much about it. Did the girls really try to be on time? I assume so. Did that particular girl check the time on that particular day? Maybe. Likely. But impossible to know. Did they stumble as they started to get sick? Yes, often. Their bones were shrinking. Did that particular girl stumble on that particular day? How could we know? I understand that Moore is setting up the subtle beginnings of the disease, but there does seem to be a little bit of poetic licensing happening, too. Even so, well worth the read. Excellent prose, thought-provoking, and highly informative.