THE BOSTON MOLASSES DISASTER.

THE BOSTON MOLASSES DISASTER. Sam Anderson gives an amusing list of all the things that distracted him in the course of writing his article. One of the items is the Boston Molasses Disaster. Anderson says: “If I were going to excuse you from reading this article for any single distraction, which I am not, it would be to read about the Boston Molasses Disaster.” Here is a link to the wikipedia article on the Boston Molasses Disaster. When I studied American history in high school, I never encountered the Boston Molasses Disaster, but apparently both Annalisa and Nick learned that in 1919, a huge molasses tank in Boston collapsed, killing 21 people. I suppose the significance of the Boston Molasses Disaster for the teaching of history is that students would learn that in 1919–instead of sugar–“molasses was the standard sweetener in the United States.” It’s also a good story.