Reviews for The Great Chicago Fire: In Eyewitness Accounts and 70 Contemporary Photographs and Illustrations (Dover Books on Americana)

The average rating for The Great Chicago Fire: In Eyewitness Accounts and 70 Contemporary Photographs and Illustrations (Dover Books on Americana) based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-09-14 00:00:00 Danny Bryant Late one night when we are all in bed Old Mother Leary left a lantern in the shed, And later when the cow kicked it over, she winked her eye and said There will be a hot time in the old town, tonight." - 1896 On October 8th in 1871, on a hot and windy night, a fire broke out in Chicago and burned for two days. It left 300 people dead, destroyed 17,000 structures and caused two million dollars in damages. It left 100 thousand homeless as it burned a path four miles long and one mile wide. One-third of the city was destroyed. The city has a booming population (300 thousand) and the disaster led to looting and crime until the military was called in. Author David Garrard Lowe has written a fine book with many eyewitness accounts of the most famous fire in American history. Many people who lived through it, saw many acts of bravery including people who risked their own lives to save children. People wrote that the fire made the sky so beautifully surreal, almost like it was filled with fireflies which were actually the burning embers. Desperate families ran for their lives to the river, Lake Michigan or outskirts of town to escape. Many parts of the essays, diaries and letters of survivors are in the book. The book also has many wonderful photographs and also before and after illustrations. One of the most interesting parts of the book for me was what or who caused the fire. The poor O'Leary family had their lives ruined because they were blamed for starting the fire by a reporter who made up the story. The fire did start on their farm but we do not know what or whom started the fire. The O'Leary's were Irish Catholic and there was a lots of anti-Irish propaganda in Chicago at the time. There was a terrible drought and the entire city was made almost entirely of wood which made the city a tinderbox. There had been a fire the day before, on October 7th, that left the firefighters exhausted and damaged some of their equipment. The fire department consisted of 185 men with horse drawn steamers, using coal to run the water pumps and they were no match for the enormous blazes. It changed the way we thought of fire safety forever and changed the way we built our cities and streets. Today the Chicago Fire Department has a training location on the location of the O'Leary farm. In 1997, the Chicago City Council exonorated Catherine O'Leary and her cow. Four informative stars for making me go back in time and feel such a connection to the city of Chicago during this terrible fire.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-04-13 00:00:00 Lawrence Richard A brief but fascinating illustrated history of Chicago's most important historical event.