Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Radium Girls | 2017 | Kate Moore | Buy |
| 2 | The Woman They Could Not Silence | 2021 | Kate Moore | Buy |
The Radium Girls (2017) tells the story of young female factory workers in the early twentieth century who were poisoned by the radium paint they used to create glow-in-the-dark watch dials. The book follows their fight for justice against the companies that knew the substance was dangerous but concealed the risks. It became a bestseller and was adapted for the stage.
The Woman They Could Not Silence (2021) covers another case of institutional injustice, following a woman committed to an asylum in the 1860s for disagreeing with her husband. Both books focus on women who challenged powerful systems, and both draw on extensive archival research to reconstruct the stories in detail.