Main entry:

Sawislak, Karen.

Title & Author:

Smoldering city : Chicagoans and the Great Fire, 1871-1874 / Karen Sawislak.

Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Description:

xi, 396 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Series:

Historical studies of urban America

Notes:
Examines the various debates the city faced after the Chicago 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. Explains the events that led up to the Chicago fire: intensely dry conditions, a 20-m.p.h. southwest wind, and an unfortunate spark at 10 o"clock on the night of Oct. 8 all combined to turn Chicago into a "vast ocean of flame". The rift between the immigrant working class and the wealthy 'native-born' Chicagoans made Catherine O'Leary (and her famous cow) a perfect scapegoat for anti-Irish, anti-working class invective. Provides historical maps, plates and engravings, with an epilogue and notes.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-375) and index.
Introduction -- 1. Barriers Burned -- 2. Relief, Aid, and Order -- 3. Burdens and Boundaries -- 4. The Meanings of Cooperation -- 5. Laws and Order -- Epilogue.

Summary:

The fateful kick of Mrs. O'Leary's cow, the wild flight before the flames, the astonishingly quick rebuilding—these are the well-known stories of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. But as much as Chicago's recovery from disaster was a remarkable civic achievement, the Great Fire is also the story of a city's people divided and at odds. This is the story that Karen Sawislak tells so revealingly in this book. In a detailed account, drawn on memoirs, private correspondences, and other documents, Sawislak chronicles years of widespread, sometimes bitter, social and political conflict in the fire's wake, from fights over relief soup kitchens to cries against profiteering and marches on city hall by workers burned out of their homes. She shows how through the years of rebuilding the people of Chicago struggled to define civic order—and the role that "good citizens" would play within it. As they rebuilt, she writes, Chicagoans confronted hard questions about charity and social welfare, work and labor relations, morality, and the limits of state power. Their debates in turn exposed the array of values and interests that different class, ethnic, and religious groups brought to these public discussions.-- Publisher description.

Resources:
Table of contents
Publisher description

ISBN:

0226735478 (cloth ; alk. paper)
9780226735474 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0226735486 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
9780226735481 (pbk. ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Great Fire, Chicago, Ill., 1871.
Auswirkung
Brandkatastrophe
Branden.
Geschichte 1871.
Geschichte 1871-1874.
Chicago (Ill.) History To 1875.
Chicago (Ill.) Histoire Jusqu'à 1875.
Illinois Chicago
United States, Illinois, Cook, Chicago History.
Chicago, Ill.

Form/genre:

History

Added entries:

Historical studies of urban America.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 107694
Call No.: ID F548.42.S2; ID:96-B1122
Status: Available