One of the more bizarre events of 1919 (and in U.S. history), but strangely encapsulates many of the issues prevalent that year. Immigration, prohibition, and the first Red Scare all play parts in it.
Many of the books about the Great Boston Molasses Flood are kids books. And so when I started working on a show about 1919, it was one of my kids who requested that write a song about it. Out came Monster in the Tank.
Books
Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo
Really the only complete deep dive into this bizarre and tragic disaster that also led to the modern building code.
I Survived The Great Molasses Flood, 1919 by Lauren Tarshis
A well-researched dramatization of the flood. It’s filed under “juvenile” but it’s historical fiction for any age–especially if you want a quick, entertaining read about the topic.
Madison: The Illustrated Sesquicentennial History, Volume 1, 1856–1931 by Stuart D. Levitan
A big part of the story of the Boston Molasses Flood is the story of Italian immigrants. Stu Levitan’s book has a great section on the creation of the Greenbush Neighborhood in Madison which was populated largely by Italians.
Another great book by Stephen Puleo. This one delves deep into the background of Italian immigrants, and specifically those who settled in Boston’s North End–and in the path of a flood of two million gallons of molasses.
Podcast
Send All Available Personnel: The United States and the Great Molasses Flood by Elizabeth Lunday
Elizabeth Lunday mixes in women’s rights with the Great Molasses Flood.
Written by: Ken Fitzsimmons
Ken Fitzsimmons has worked in music for 30 years, receiving a Bachelor of Music under the tutelage of jazz bass great Richard Davis, and an MBA from the Bolz Center of Arts Administration. He is the bassist in Milwaukee-based Little Blue Crunchy things and co-founder of the nationally touring Irish rock group The Kissers.
He has taught music privately for three decades and serves as the Education Director at Madison Music Foundry. In 2018 he was the Artistic Director for the multimedia “rock and roll history show” The Greatest War: World War One, Wisconsin, and Why It Still Matters produced in partnership with Four Seasons Theatre and Antishadows Theatrical Design.
