The Burning of the World
Book description
The "illuminating" (New Yorker) story of the Great Chicago Fire: a raging inferno, a harrowing fight for survival, and the struggle for the soul of a city—told with the "the clarity—and tension—of a well-wrought military narrative" (Wall Street Journal)
In the fall of 1871, Chicagoans knew they were due for…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Burning of the World as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This is a thrilling account of one of the worst disasters ever to befall an American city, laying waste to 20 percent of the great midwestern metropolis in 1871. Berg vividly brings alive Chicagoans, great and small – poor immigrants, scheming pols, profit-driven businessmen, and unsung local heroes – in a moment of unimaginable crisis.
Berg is a brilliant narrative writer as well as an acute historian with a masterful eye for detail and penetrating insight into the political rivalries, economic imperatives, and architectural problems that made the city so vulnerable and that shaped its stunningly dynamic recovery.
I have…
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