Smoldering City: Chicagoans and the Great Fire, 1871-1874 (Historical Studies of Urban America)
Sawislak combines the copious detail of a historian with the vivid portrayals of a storyteller in her investigation of the infamous Chicago fire. Drawing historical accounts from one of the nation's first media frenzies, she examines the various philosophical debates the city faced after the fire in dealing with homelessness, the care and feeding of much of the population and the problem of rebuilding amidst political chaos and people working at cross purposes. She also explains the events that led up to the inferno. "Intensely dry conditions, a 20-m.p.h. southwest wind, and an unfortunate spark at approximately 10 o'clock on the night of October 8 all combined to turn Chicago into what two historians of the Great Fire would describe as 'a vast ocean of flame.'" The rift between the immigrant working class and the wealthy "native-born" Chicagoans made Catherine O'Leary (and her infamous bovine) a perfect scapegoat for anti-Irish, anti-working class invective. Highlighted by historical maps, plates and engravings, with an epilogue and notes, Smoldering City presents an extremely thorough and engaging study of this extraordinary disaster.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.