Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. How was the world of work changing for most Americans during the beginning of the 20th century? What benefits and drawbacks did the emerging industrial economy have for ordinary people?

Teaching Suggestion: The Radium Girls takes place in the working class world of the early 20th-century United States. If students are familiar with this setting, they might respond to this prompt, then utilize the resources below as a way to self-check their ideas. If they lack prior background knowledge, they might review the resources first and use the prompt to apply new information.

• This article from the Library of Congress offers an overview of the working world in early 20th-century America.
• This article from the Oxford Research Encyclopedia offers an in-depth discussion of working conditions from 1900 to 1945.
• This 2-minute film from the Library of Congress shows a typical working environment for women in 1904 at the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company.

2. What is “technological optimism”? How did the public’s beliefs about science give rise to technological optimism in the early 20th century?