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Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919

Stephen Puleo, author and historian

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Shortly after noon on January 15, 1919, a fifty-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents in a 20-foot wave of molasses that traveled at thirty-five miles per hour. When the tide receded, a section of the city's North End had been transformed into a war zone. The Great Boston Molasses Flood claimed the lives of 21 people, injured 150, killed scores of animals, and caused widespread destruction. Stephen Puleo's Dark Tide is the first nonfiction account of the molasses flood, and the book places the event in its full historical context. Tracing the era from the tank's construction in 1915 through a multi-year lawsuit that followed the disaster, and drawing from long-lost court documents, Puleo uses the gripping drama of the molasses flood to examine the sweeping changes brought about by World War I, the anarchist movement, immigration, and the expanding role of government on big business and society. It's also a chronicle of the courage of ordinary people, from the firemen caught in the catastrophe to Judge Hugh Ogden, the soldier-lawyer who presided over the lawsuit with heroic impartiality.

Stephen Puleo is an author, historian, university teacher, public speaker, and communications professional. His fourth book, A City So Grand: The Rise of an American Metropolis, Boston 1850-1900 will be released May 1 (2010) by Beacon Press. In pre-publication praise for the book, bestselling novelist Dennis Lehane said: A City So Grand is a book so grand. It's been quite awhile since I've read anything--fiction or non-fiction--so enthralling. My only complaint is that it ended. Publishers Weekly called the book; smoothly narrated and a thorough history. The Boston Sunday Globe published a story by Puleo in its April 11, 2010 edition, adapted from A City So Grand, entitled When Boston Awoke. DARK TIDE and DUE TO ENEMY ACTION have been subjects of History Channel programs, and Puleo has also discussed DARK TIDE on C-Span.